Chase far the cold winter away from us now,
And cover the fields with white daisies.

Oh, come gentle spring, alight on the trees,
Renew them with life and deep verdure,
Then choristers gay will replenish the breeze
With their songs and musical rapture.

Oh, come gentle spring, breathe soft on the flowers,
And clothe them in raiments of beauty,
The rose may reopen its petals in tears,
And sunbeams unfold the white lily.



TO THE NIGHTINGALE.


BY THE REV. JOHN BLACKWELL, B.A.

[The Rev. John Blackwell, B.A., whose bardic name was _Alun_, from the
river of that name was born at Mold, in Flintshire, in the year 1797, and
died in 1840, in the parish of Manordeivi, Pembrokeshire, of which he was
Rector. He participated much in the Eisteddfodau of that period, and his
poems gained many of their prizes. He also edited the "Gwladgarwr," or
the Patriot, a monthly magazine, and afterwards the "Cylchgrawn," or
Circle of Grapes, another magazine, under the auspices of the Society for
the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. The subjects of this poet's
compositions were patriotic, sentimental and religious, and his poems are
characterised by deep pathos, and great sweetness of diction.]