Page:Romance of the Rose (Ellis), volume 1.pdf/37

The sweetness of springtide Then earth, though old, once more grows vain.
And, cheered by balmy dews and rain,
Forgets her poverished drear estate
’Neath winter stern and obdurate;
For pride awaketh new desire
To dizen her in bright attire,60
And thereto doth she fashion quaint
And fair habiliments, and paint
Them o’er with tints of varying hue,
Green herb, and flowers, white, red, and blue;
And tricked in such gay robes I ween
Old Earth loves dearly to be seen.
The merry birds that silence kept
While all the world ’neath winter slept,
And wild winds roared, and skies were grey
With rain, break forth, when cometh May,70
In lusty note, and let sweet song
Proclaim their joy that winter’s wrong
Is past, and now once more doth reign
Sweet spring-tide o’er old earth’s domain.
Then nightingales with new-born voice
Through day and night make dulcet noise.
While larks on high, and in the brake
The woodwales, heavenly music wake;
And hearkening such sweet clamour, soon
Young hearts respond the amorous tune80
In this sweet season of fair spring.
O dull the soul that carolling
Of birds delighteth not when they
The echoes wake in joyous May.

’Twas in this season of delight.
When all things love as if of right,