IN WINTER-TIME, a poem

HOW sweet it is 'neath apple-blooms to lie,
     And breathe their breath!
To peep through waving branches at the sky,
To feel the zephyrs as they idle by,
     And question of the brooklet what it saith!

How sweet it is to roam through the green wold
     When labors cease!
To hear the tranquil tale by Nature told—
The tale that was not young, and grows not old—
     To find within the heart an answering peace!

And though apart from Nature we maintain
     An alien quest,
How sweet that we shall leave the strife and strain
Some blessèd morn, and wander back again,
     And close our eyes, and in her bosom rest!

"In Winter-Time" by Florence Earle Coates. Published in Mine and Thine (1904) and Poems (1916) Volume II.