Another Spring

 

If I might see another Spring,

I'd not plant summer flowers and wait:

I'd have my crocuses at once,

My leafless pink mezereons,

My chill-veined snowdrops, choicer yet

My white or azure violet,

Leaf-nested primrose; anything

To blow at once, not late.

English Spring Flowers

(2020)

Photograph by Martyn Arnold

If I might see another Spring

I'd listen to the daylight birds

That build their nests and pair and sing,

Nor wait for mateless nightingale;

I'd listen to the lusty herds,

The ewes with lambs as white as snow,

I'd find out music in the hail

And all the winds that blow.

If I might see another Spring-

Oh stinging comment on my past

That all my past results in "if"-

If I might see another Spring

I'd laugh to-day, to-day is brief;

I would not wait for anything:

I'd use to-day that cannot last,

Be glad to-day and sing.

"Another Spring"
Christina Rossetti
(1830-1894)
English Pre-Raphaelite poetess