The Bells of Youth

The Bells of Youth are ringing in the gateways of the South:
The bannerets of green are now unfurled:
Spring has risen with a laugh, a wild-rose in her mouth,
And is singing, singing, singing thro' the world.
The Bells of Youth are ringing in all the silent places,
The primrose and the celandine are out:
Children run a-laughing with joy upon their faces,
The west wind follows after with a shout.
The Bells of Youth are ringing from the forests to the mountains,
From the meadows to the moorlands, hark their ringing!
Ten thousand thousand splashing rills and fern-dappled fountains
Are flinging wide the Song of Youth, and onward flowing, singing!
The Bells of Youth are ringing in the gateways of the South:
The bannerets of green are now unfurled:
Spring has risen with a laugh, a wild-rose in her mouth,
And is singing, singing, singing thro' the world.

The stars wailed when the reed was born,
And heaven wept at the birth of the thorn:
Joy was pluckt like a flower and torn,
For Time foreshadowed Good-Friday Morn.
But the stars laughed like children free
And heaven was hung with the rainbow's glee
When at Easter Sunday, so fair to see,
Time bowed before Eternity.

A star was loosed from heaven;
All saw it fall, in wonder,
Where universe clashed universe
With solar thunder.
The angels praised God's glory,
To send this beacon-flare
To show the terror of darkness
Beneath the Golden Stair.
But God was brooding only
Upon new births of light;
The star was a drop of water
On the lips of Eternal Light.