Poem: “April” by Nathaniel Parker Willis

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American Literature – American Poetry – Nathaniel Parker Willis – Poems by Nathaniel Parker Willis
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April

“A violet by a mossy stone,
Half-hidden from the eye,
Fair as a star, when only one
Is shining in the sky.”
Wordsworth

I have found violets. April hath come on,
And the cool winds feel softer, and the rain
Falls in the beaded drops of summer-time.
You may hear birds at morning, and at eve
The tame dove lingers till the twilight falls,
Cooling upon the eaves, and drawing in
His beautiful, bright neck; and, from the hills,
A murmur like the hoarseness of the sea,
Tells the release of waters, and the earth
Sends up a pleasant smell, and the dry leaves
Are lifted by the grass; and so I know
That Nature, with her delicate ear, hath heard
The dropping of the velvet foot of Spring.
Take of my violets! I found them where
The liquid south stole o’er them, on a bank
That lean’d to running water. There’s to me
A daintiness about these early flowers,
That touches me like poetry. They blow
With such a simple loveliness among
The common herbs of pasture, and breathe out
Their lives so unobtrusively, like hearts
Whose beatings are too gentle for the world.
I love to go in the capricious days
Of April and hunt violets, when the rain
Is in the blue cups trembling, and they nod
So gracefully to the kisses of the wind.
It may be deem’d too idle, but the young
Read nature like the manuscript of Heaven,
And call the flowers its poetry. Go out!
Ye spirits of habitual unrest,
And read it, when the “fever of the world”
Hath made your hearts impatient, and, if life
Hath yet one spring unpoison’d, it will be
Like a beguiling music to its flow,
And you will no more wonder that I love
To hunt for violets in the April-time.

< < < Andre’s Request to Washington
Birth-day Verses > > >

American Literature – American Poetry – Nathaniel Parker Willis – Poems by Nathaniel Parker Willis

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April

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