May 20
Companions of the Way (Evening)Lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come.
NATURE, so far as in her lies, Imitates God, and turns her face
To every land beneath the skies, Counts nothing that she meets with base, But lives and loves in every place;
Fills out the homely quickset-screens, And makes the purple lilac ripe, Steps from her airy hill, and greens The swamp, where hums the dropping snipe, With moss and braided marish-pipe;
And on thy heart a finger lays, Saying, "Beat quicker, for the time Is pleasant, and the woods and ways Are pleasant, and the beech and lime Put forth and feel a gladder clime."
And murmurs of a deeper voice, Going before to some far shrine, Teach that sick heart the stronger choice, Till all thy life one way incline With one wide will that closes thine.
ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON