LADY, wouldst thou heiress be To Winter's cold and cruel part? When he sets the rivers free, Thou dost still lock up thy heart; -- Thou that shouldst outlast the snow, But in the whiteness of thy brow. Scorn and cold neglect are made For winter gloom and winter wind, But thou wilt wrong the summer air, Breathing it to words unkind, -- Breath which only should belong To love, to sunlight, and to song! When the little buds unclose, Red, and white, and pied, and blue, And that virgin flow'r, the rose, Opes her heart to hold the dew, Wilt thou lock thy bosom up With no jewel in its cup? Let not cold December sit Thus in Love's peculiar throne: Brooklets are not prison'd now, But crystal frosts are all agone, And that which hangs upon the spray, It is no snow, but flow'r of May! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A SONG TO A FAIR YOUNG LADY GOING OUT OF TOWN IN THE SPRING by JOHN DRYDEN ALEXANDER CRUMMELL - DEAD by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR THE ENEMY'S PORTRAIT by THOMAS HARDY EPITAPHS OF THE WAR, 1914-18: BOMBER IN LONDON by RUDYARD KIPLING THE DYING WORDS OF STONEWALL JACKSON by SIDNEY LANIER FORMERLY A SLAVE' (AN IDEALIZED PORTRAIT, BY E. VEDDER) by HERMAN MELVILLE |