Balder’s Song

It may be raining now, that first warm rain That melts the heart of earth beneath the snows, Our Northland snows (she feels the swimmer’s pain Who catches breath, half-drowned, when the blood flows Shuddering back into the frozen vein). And did ye think I should not come again At the long last in spring-time with the rain?

Or may be there is singing in the air At building-time where the tall windy trees, By sap and young leaves hurt, can hardly bear The spring’s reiterated urgencies That at the woods with actual fingers tear. And did ye, when these songs are everywhere, Of Balder, who first taught them song, despair?

Or it may be where once my altar stood And where my worshipped name in prayer ascended, Blue, like a trumpet, in the solitude Harebells, that ring before the winter’s ended, Have with the wind my litanies renewed. Did ye forget (alas! that any could) That I, the god of flowers, found these good?

And may be where the dog-rose remedies With her wild flush the hedge, and spring begins, Born of all these there trembles the first kiss That from Valhalla brings the Paladins And ladies, who for all the immortal bliss Of heaven, have no joy as sharp as this. Did ye not know in your own memories That where are love and spring there Balder is?

It may be raining now, that first warm rain That melts the heart of earth beneath the snows, Our Northland snows (she feels the swimmer’s pain Who catches breath, half-drowned, when the blood flows Shuddering back into the frozen vein). And did ye think I should not come again At the long last in spring-time with the rain?