1. ۱WARBLE me now, for joy of Lilac-time,
2. ۲Sort me, O tongue and lips, for Nature’s sake, and sweet life’s sake—and
3. ۳ death’s the same as life’s,
4. ۴Souvenirs of earliest summer—birds’ eggs, and the first berries;
5. ۵Gather the welcome signs, (as children, with pebbles, or stringing shells;)
6. ۶Put in April and May—the hylas croaking in the ponds—the elastic air,
7. ۷Bees, butterflies, the sparrow with its simple notes,
8. ۸Blue-bird, and darting swallow—nor forget the high-hole flashing his golden wings,
9. ۹The tranquil sunny haze, the clinging smoke, the vapor,
10. ۱۰Spiritual, airy insects, humming on gossamer wings,
11. ۱۱Shimmer of waters, with fish in them—the cerulean above;
12. ۱۲All that is jocund and sparkling—the brooks running,
13. ۱۳The maple woods, the crisp February days, and the sugar-making;
14. ۱۴The robin, where he hops, bright-eyed, brown-breasted,
15. ۱۵With musical clear call at sunrise, and again at sunset,
16. ۱۶Or flitting among the trees of the apple-orchard, building the nest of his mate;
17. ۱۷The melted snow of March—the willow sending forth its yellow-green sprouts;
18. ۱۸—For spring-time is here! the summer is here! and what is this in it and from it?
19. ۱۹Thou, Soul, unloosen’d—the restlessness after I know not what;
20. ۲۰Come! let us lag here no longer—let us be up and away!
21. ۲۱O for another world! O if one could but fly like a bird!
22. ۲۲O to escape—to sail forth, as in a ship!
23. ۲۳To glide with thee, O Soul, o’er all, in all, as a ship o’er the waters!
24. ۲۴—Gathering these hints, these preludes—the blue sky, the grass, the morning
25. ۲۵ drops of
26. ۲۶ dew;
27. ۲۷(With additional songs—every spring will I now strike up additional songs,
28. ۲۸Nor ever again forget, these tender days, the chants of Death as well as Life;)
29. ۲۹The lilac-scent, the bushes, and the dark green, heart-shaped leaves,
30. ۳۰Wood violets, the little delicate pale blossoms called innocence,
31. ۳۱Samples and sorts not for themselves alone, but for their atmosphere,
32. ۳۲To tally, drench’d with them, tested by them,
33. ۳۳Cities and artificial life, and all their sights and scenes,
34. ۳۴My mind henceforth, and all its meditations—my recitatives,
35. ۳۵My land, my age, my race, for once to serve in songs,
36. ۳۶(Sprouts, tokens ever of death indeed the same as life,)
37. ۳۷To grace the bush I love—to sing with the birds,
38. ۳۸A warble for joy of Lilac-time.