Christina G. Rossetti

It's surely summer. for there's a swallow:
Come one swallow, his mate will follow,
The bird race read more

It's surely summer. for there's a swallow:
Come one swallow, his mate will follow,
The bird race quicken and wheel and thicken.

There goes the swallow,--
Could we but follow!
Hasty swallow, stay,
Point us out read more

There goes the swallow,--
Could we but follow!
Hasty swallow, stay,
Point us out the way;
Look back swallow, turn back swallow, stop swallow.

Hark! that's the nightingale,
Telling the self-same tale
Her song told when this ancient earth was young:
read more

Hark! that's the nightingale,
Telling the self-same tale
Her song told when this ancient earth was young:
So echoes answered when her song was sung
In the first wooded vale.

Love came down at Christmas; love all lovely, love divine; love was born at Christmas, stars and angels gave the read more

Love came down at Christmas; love all lovely, love divine; love was born at Christmas, stars and angels gave the sign.

In the bleak midwinter
Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water read more

In the bleak midwinter
Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter,
Long ago.