PETRARCA.

IX.

HOMEWARD

SPRING-TIME.

Spring, bright prophet of God’s eternal youth, herald forever eloquent of heaven’s undying joy, has once more wrought its miracle of resurrection on the vineyards and olive-groves of Tuscany, and touched with gently-wakening fingers the myrtle and the orange in the gardens of Florence.  The Apennines have put aside their snowy winding-sheet, and their untroubled faces salute with rosy gleams of promise the new day, while flowers smile upward to the serene sky amid the grass and grain fields, and fruit is swelling beneath the blossoms along the plains of Arno.  “The Italian spring,” writes Margaret, “is as good as Paradise.  Days come of glorious sunshine and gently-flowing airs, that expand the heart and uplift the whole nature.  The birds are twittering their first notes of love; the ground is enamelled with anemones, cowslips, and crocuses; every old wall and ruin puts on its festoon and garland; and the heavens stoop daily nearer, till the earth is folded in an embrace of light, and her every pulse beats music.”

“This world is indeed a sad place, despite its sunshine, birds, and crocuses.  But I never felt as happy as now, when I always find the glad eyes of my little boy to welcome me.  I feel the tie between him and me so real and deep-rooted, that even death shall not part us.  So sweet is this unimpassioned love, it knows no dark reactions, it does not idealize, and cannot be daunted by the faults of its object.  Nothing but a child can take the worst bitterness out of life, and break the spell of loneliness.  I shall not be alone in other worlds, whenever Eternity may call me.”

And now her face is turned homeward.  “I am homesick,” she had written years before, “but where is that HOME?”

OMENS.

  “My heart is very tired,—­my strength is low,—­
  My hands are full of blossoms plucked before,
  Held dead within them till myself shall die.”

  ELIZABETH BARRETT.

Many motives drew Margaret to her native land:  heart-weariness at the reaction in Europe; desire of publishing to best advantage the book whereby she hoped at once to do justice to great principles and brave men, and to earn bread for her dear ones and herself; and, above all, yearning to be again among her family and earliest associates.  “I go back,” she writes, “prepared for difficulties; but it will be a consolation to be with my mother, brothers, sister, and old friends, and I find it imperatively necessary to be in the United States, for a while at least, to make such arrangements with the printers as may free me from immediate care.  I did think, at one time, of coming alone with Angelino, and then writing for Ossoli to come later, or returning to Italy; knowing that it will be painful for him to go, and that there he must have many lonely hours.