The Invitation

BEST and brightest come away ¡ª 
Fairer far than this fair day  
Which like thee to those in sorrow 
Comes to bid a sweet good-morrow 
To the rough year just awake 5 
In its cradle on the brake.
 
The brightest hour of unborn Spring 
Through the winter wandering  
Found it seems the halcyon morn 
To hoar February born; 10 
Bending from heaven in azure mirth  
It kiss'd the forehead of the earth  
And smiled upon the silent sea  
And bade the frozen streams be free  
And waked to music all their fountains 15 
And breathed upon the frozen mountains  
And like a prophetess of May 
Strew'd flowers upon the barren way  
Making the wintry world appear 
Like one on whom thou smilest dear.
 20 

Away away from men and towns  
To the wild woods and the downs¡ª 
To the silent wilderness  
Where the soul need not repress 
Its music lest it should not find 25 
An echo in another's mind  
While the touch of Nature's art 
Harmonizes heart to heart.
 

Radiant Sister of the Day 
Awake! arise! and come away! 30 
To the wild woods and the plains  
To the pools where winter rains 
Image all their roof of leaves  
Where the pine its garland weaves 
Of sapless green and ivy dun 35 
Round stems that never kiss the sun; 
Where the lawns and pastures be 
And the sandhills of the sea; 
Where the melting hoar-frost wets 
The daisy-star that never sets 40 
And wind-flowers and violets 
Which yet join not scent to hue 
Crown the pale year weak and new; 

When the night is left behind 
In the deep east dim and blind 45 
And the blue noon is over us  
And the multitudinous 
Billows murmur at our feet  
Where the earth and ocean meet  
And all things seem only one 50 
In the universal Sun.
 

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