Songs by the Way, by George Washington Doane (1860)

Project Canterbury

"Songs by the Way"
The Poetical Writings of the Right Rev. George Washington Doane, D.D., LL.D.

Arranged and Edited by His Son, William Croswell Doane

New York: D. Appleton, 1860.

1840-1850.

THE SMELL OF SPRING.

The first violets of the year 1840, seen this day, 4th March, Ash Wednesday.

THE smell of Spring! how it comes to us,
     In those simple, wild-wood flowers,
With memories sweet, of friends and home,
When never a cloud on our sky had come,
     In childhood's cheerful hours.

The smell of Spring! how it comes to us,
     In that cluster of purple bloom,
With thoughts of the loved and loving one,
Not lost, we know, but before us gone,
     Whom we left, in his wintry tomb.

The smell of Spring! how it comes to us,
     In the violet's fragrant breath,
With beaming hopes of that brighter shore,
Where flowers and friends, shall fall no more,
     "And there shall be no more death."

Project Canterbury