Page:The roamer and other poems (1920).djvu/214

HO! THE SPRINGTIME!

In the Trenches. Italy: 1917

I

Ho! the springtime!
Springtime sets a young heart thinking.

Then it was spring, when I gave my signore the flowers of the field,
And my brother brought him great violets that the perfumed gardens yield;
Sun, and field-flowers, and violets bound our bosoms and sealed.

Ho! the sun in the campagna! the flow of the sap of the world!
The blossom of dawn! the irised sea! the far beach surf-impearled!—
And all their joy in our bosoms like a flower from the bud unfurled!
One leap, one thrill, one throb of the manifold pulse divine

Flooded and blended our being, as the grapes are one in the wine.

204