My love for you, sweet Earth, my mother, I cannot hide - I do not crave The phantom pleasures of that other, That spectral world beyond the grave. O spring, the blessedness of Eden Compared to yours as nothing is! Love's joys you bring us all unbidden, And golden dreams, and light, and bliss. What rapture to drink in the balmy, Warm air of spring, to languor wed, And watch the clouds drift slowly, calmly High in the blueness overhead; To wander happily and idly Across a field and past a stream, To catch the scent of blooming lilac Or chance upon a radiant dream!..