Let us then together sport and play;
    Cytherea bids the young be gay: 
        Laughter soft and happy voices,
        Hope and love invite to mirth when May rejoices.

All the spring is in the lyric next upon my list.

THE RETURN OF SPRING: 

No. 12.

    Spring returns, the glad new-comer,
      Bringing pleasure, banning pain: 
    Meadows bloom with early summer,
      And the sun shines out again: 
    All sad thoughts and passions vanish;
    Plenteous Summer comes to banish
      Winter with his starveling train.

    Hails and snows and frosts together
      Melt and thaw like dews away;
    While the spring in cloudless weather
      Sucks the breast of jocund May;
    Sad’s the man and born for sorrow
    Who can live not, dares not borrow
      Gladness from a summer’s day.

    Full of joy and jubilation,
      Drunk with honey of delight,
    Are the lads whose aspiration
      Is the palm of Cupid’s fight! 
    Youths, we’ll keep the laws of Venus,
    And with joy and mirth between us
      Live and love like Paris wight!

The next has the same accent of gladness, though it is tuned to a somewhat softer and more meditative note of feeling.

THE SWEETNESS OF THE SPRING.

No. 13.

    Vernal hours are sweet as clover,
    With love’s honey running over;
    Every heart on this earth burning
    Finds new birth with spring’s returning.

    In the spring-time blossoms flourish,
    Fields drink moisture, heaven’s dews nourish;
    Now the griefs of maidens, after
    Dark days, turn to love and laughter.

    Whoso love, are loved, together
    Seek their pastime in spring weather;
    And, with time and place agreeing,
    Clasp, kiss, frolic, far from seeing.

Gradually the form of the one girl whom the lyrist loves emerges from this wealth of description.

THE SUIT TO PHYLLIS.

No. 14.

    Hail! thou longed-for month of May,
    Dear to lovers every day! 
    Thou that kindlest hour by hour
    Life in man and bloom in bower! 
    O ye crowds of flowers and hues
    That with joy the sense confuse,
    Hail! and to our bosom bring
    Bliss and every jocund thing! 
    Sweet the concert of the birds;
    Lovers listen to their words: 
    For sad winter hath gone by,
    And a soft wind blows on high.

    Earth hath donned her purple vest,
    Fields with laughing flowers are dressed,
    Shade upon the wild wood spreads,
    Trees lift up their leafy heads;
    Nature in her joy to-day
    Bids all living things be gay;