When we are men, and are thus moved, it is, "Ah, how bright life was!" Ben did not pause in the hyacinth-bed with me.

The tulips are all a-blaze and a-stare, making one blink with the dazzle of their odorless beauty: the frolicsome young wind is shaking out their balm from the hyacinth-bells, and the sweet Nanciesmy flowersblowing all together, are swaying and congéeing to the morning airs.

And yet I, too, as I walk and bask, and bend to smell the hyacinth-blooms, feel that same vague and most unnamed yearninga delicate pain that he who has it would barter for no boisterous joy.

I loved thee, maiden, when thou cam'st long since, To pluck the hyacinth-blossom on the fell, Thou and my mother, piloted by me.

What stirred me so deeply in April, stirred also the hyacinth-bulb and the lily of the valley deep in the earthwarmth, moisture, sunshine and shadow, and sweet spring rainand the same fullness of life that throbbed in my veins in June called forth the rose.