No. 12 The Return of Spring
Spring returns, the glad new-comer,
Bringing pleasure, banning pain:
Meadows bloom with early summer,
And the sun shines out again:
All sad thoughts and passions vanish;
Plenteous Summer comes to banish
Winter with his starveling train.
Hails and snows and frosts together
Melt and thaw like dews away;
While the spring in cloudless weather
Sucks the breast of jocund May;
Sad’s the man and born for sorrow
Who can live not, dares not borrow
Gladness from a summer’s day.
Full of joy and jubilation,
Drunk with honey of delight,
Are the lads whose aspiration
Is the palm of Cupid’s fight!
Youths, we’ll keep the laws of Venus,
And with joy and mirth between us
Live and love like Paris wight!
The next has the same accent of gladness, though it is tuned to a somewhat softer and more meditative note of feeling.