Conversion of Winkelmann Author:Alfred Austin Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: VIS MEDICATRIX NATURAE When Faith turns false and Fancy grows unkind, And Fortune, more from fickleness than spite, Takes the keen savour out of all delight, ... more »And of sweet pulp leaves only bitter rind, Then I the load of living leave behind, Fleeing where, far from human sound and sight, Over brown furrows wheels the lapwing white, And whistles tunely with the winter wind. For Nature's frank indifference woundeth less Than Man's feigned smiles and simulated tears : She is at least the egoist she appears, Scorning to proffer or entice caress; And, through the long reiterated years, Endures her doom with uncomplainingness. ANOTHER SPRING CAROL i Now Winter hath drifted To bygone years, And the sod is uplifted By crocus spears; And out of the hive the bee wings humming, And we know that the Spring, the Spring, is coming. ii For the snow hath melted From sunless cleft, And the clouds that pelted Slant sleet have left The sky as blue as a child's gaze after Its tears have vanished and veered to laughter. See ! light is gleaming In primrose brakes, And out of its dreaming The speedwell wakes, And the tender tips of the timid clover Peep forth to see if the frost be over. The celandine gazes Straight at the sun ; The starlike daisies Peer one by one; And, over the pool where the sallow glistens, The daffodil hangs its head and listens. At first but single, And then in flocks, In dell and dingle The lady-smocks Make mist for the golden cowslip tapers To shine like sunrise through morning vapours. In fat-ribbed fallows The lapwings nest, And the home-coming swallows Seek out where best They may build, with a love that is sure and stable, Their cosy cribs under last year's gable. The blackcaps treble A strain as s...« less