Poetry Revisited: Sonnet to Spring by Charles Tompson

Sonnet to Spring

(from Wild Notes from the Lyre of a Native Minstrel: 1826)

I.
Gay blooming goddess of the flow'ry year,
Enchanting Spring, thou youth of nature, hail!
What artless beauties in thy train appear,
What balmy fragrance swells th' ambrosial gale,

II.
All nature, ravished, owns thy quick'ning power,
In brighter prospect, lo the landscape spreads!
Aërial music wakes in ev'ry bower,
Sings thro' the brake or carols o'er the meads.

III.
The sportive streamlet, as it purls along,
Laving, with modest kiss, its verdant steep,
In softer cadence wafts the woodland song,
And lulls the fond of solitude to sleep;
My Chloe seeks me in our fav'rite grove
And all creation wears the look of love!

Charles Tompson (1807-1883)
Australian poet and public servant