y humour of lust and mirth?
'Love and God's will go wing and wing,
And as for death, is there any such thing?'--
In the shadow of death,
So, at the beck of the wizard Spring
The dear bird saith--
So the bird saith!

Caught with us all in the nets of fate,
So the sweet wretch sings early and late;
And, O my fairest, after all,
The heart of the World's in his innocent call.
The will of the World's with him wing and wing:--
'Life--life--life! 'Tis the sole great thing
This side of death,
Heart on heart in the wonder of Spring!'
So the bird saith--
The wise bird saith!

XII

This world, all hoary
With song and story,
Rolls in a glory
Of youth and mirth;
Above and under
Clothed on with wonder.
Sunrise and thunder,
And death and birth.
His broods befriending
With grace unending
And gifts transcending
A god's at play,
Yet do his meetness
And sovran sweetness
Hold in the jocund purpose of May.

So take your pleasure,
And in full measure
Use of your treasure,
When birds sing best!
For when heaven's bluest,
And earth feels newest,
And love longs truest,
And takes not rest:
When winds blow cleanest,
And seas roll sheenest,
And lawns lie greenest:
Then, night and day,
Dear life counts dearest,
And God walks nearest
To them that praise Him, praising His May.

XIII

_I talked one midnight with the jolly ghost_
_Of a gray ancestor_, _TOM HEYWOOD hight_;
_And_, '_Here's_,' _says he_, _his old heart liquor-lifted_--
'_Here's how we did when GLORIANA shone_:'

All in a garden green
Thrushes were singing;
Red rose and white between,
Lilies were springing;
It was the merry May;
Yet sang my Lady:--
'Nay, Sweet, now nay, now nay!
I am not ready.'

Then to a pleasant shade
I did invite her:
All things a concert made,
For to delight her;
Under, the grass was gay;
Yet sang my Lady:--
'Nay, Sweet, now nay, now nay!
I am not ready.'

XIV

Why do you linger and loiter, O most sweet?
Why do you falter and delay,
Now that the insolent, high-blooded May
Comes greeting and to greet?
Comes with her instant summonings to stray
Down the green, antient way--
The leafy, still, rose-haunted, eye-proof street!--
Where true lovers each other may entreat,
Ere the gold hair turn gray?
Entreat, and fleet
Life gaudily, and so play out their play,
Even with the t