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Home  »  An American Anthology, 1787–1900  »  1302 Incipit Vita Nova

Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.

By William MortonPayne

1302 Incipit Vita Nova

WHAT time the earth takes on the garb of Spring,

And new-born joy runs riot in the blood,

When the year’s tide turns refluent to its flood,

And blissful birds their songs are carolling,—

When life once more is fair, and everything

In nature smiles, when tender flowrets bud,

And deck the mead as stars the heavens stud,—

What wonder that my heart leaps up to sing!

What wonder that to thee my song of praise

I bring, and burn sweet incense at thy shrine,

And offer all the worship of my lays

To thee, whose loveliness hath lent my days

That life renewed whereof the Florentine

Sang ere he wrote the Comedy Divine!