BEST and brightest come away —

    Fairer far than this fair day

    Which like thee to those in sorrow

    Comes to bid a sweet good-morrow

    To the rough year just awake

    In its cradle on the brake.

    The brightest hour of unborn Spring

    Through the winter wandering

    Found it seems the halcyon¹ morn

    To hoar February born；

    Bending from heaven in azure² mirth

    It kiss'd the forehead of the earth

    And smiled upon the silent sea

    And bade the frozen streams be free

    And waked to music all their fountains

    And breathed upon the frozen mountains

    And like a prophetess of May

    Strew'd flowers upon the barren way

    Making the wintry world appear

    Like one on whom thou smilest dear.

    Away away from men and towns

    To the wild woods and the downs—

    To the silent wilderness³

    Where the soul need not repress

    Its music lest it should not find

    An echo in another's mind

    While the touch of Nature's art

    Harmonizes heart to heart.

    Radiant Sister of the Day

    Awake！ arise！ and come away！

    To the wild woods and the plains

    To the pools where winter rains

    Image all their roof of leaves

    Where the pine its garland weaves

    Of sapless green and ivy⁴ dun

    Round stems that never kiss the sun；

    Where the lawns and pastures be

    And the sandhills of the sea；

    Where the melting hoar-frost wets

    The daisy-star that never sets

    And wind-flowers and violets

    Which yet join not scent⁵ to hue⁶

    Crown the pale year weak and new；

    When the night is left behind

    In the deep east dim and blind

    And the blue noon is over us

    And the multitudinous

    Billows murmur⁷ at our feet

    Where the earth and ocean meet

    And all things seem only one

    In the universal Sun.

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