Full Lyrics
from the Afterglow (1867)
I sat beneath the Abeles old,
The meads were shot with green and gold,
And underneath my feet there rolled
The little silvery Gad:
The cuckoo and the thrush were singing,
The sheep bells on the hills were ringing,
All life was gay and glad!
The busy babbling waterfall
Melodiously kept time to all,
The rich May music mystical,
Toned to the freshening air;
Each ripening bud that open flies,
Seemed gasping with a gay surprise,
To greet the world so fair!
O lovely, lovely, lovely Spring!
O robed in sunbeams! bridegroom, king!
Breathe on my heart and bid me sing,
Or rather praise and pray;
For emblems are these sunny, hours,
These golden meads, and stream, and flowers,
Of everlasting May!
