THE angler rose, he took his rod, He kneeled and made his prayers to God.
The living God sat overhead:
The angler tripped, the eels were fed SPRING CAROLWHEN loud by landside streamlets gush, And clear in the greenwood quires the thrush, With sun on the meadows And songs in the shadows Comes again to me The gift of the tongues of the lea, The gift of the tongues of meadows.
Straightway my olden heart returns And dances with the dancing burns;It sings with the sparrows;
To the rain and the (grimy) barrows Sings my heart aloud -To the silver-bellied cloud, To the silver rainy arrows.
It bears the song of the skylark down, And it hears the singing of the town;And youth on the highways And lovers in byways Follows and sees:
And hearkens the song of the leas And sings the songs of the highways.
So when the earth is alive with gods, And the lusty ploughman breaks the sod, And the grass sings in the meadows, And the flowers smile in the shadows, Sits my heart at ease, Hearing the song of the leas, Singing the songs of the meadows.
TO WHAT SHALL I COMPARE HER?
TO what shall I compare her, That is as fair as she?
For she is fairer - fairer Than the sea.
What shall be likened to her, The sainted of my youth?
For she is truer - truer Than the truth.
As the stars are from the sleeper, Her heart is hid from me;For she is deeper - deeper Than the sea.
Yet in my dreams I view her Flush rosy with new ruth -Dreams! Ah, may these prove truer Than the truth.