William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. (1878–1962). Anthology of Magazine Verse for 1920.

Spring Cowardice

I AM afraid to go into the woods,

I fear the trees and their mad, green moods.

I fear the breezes that pull at my sleeves,

The creeping arbutus beneath the leaves,

And the brook that mocks me with wild, wet words:

I stumble and fall at the voice of birds.

Think of the terror of those swift showers,

Think of the meadows of fierce-eyed flowers:

And the little things with sudden wings

That buzz about me and dash and dart,

And the lilac waiting to break my heart!

Winter, hide me in your kind snow,

I am a coward, a coward, I know!

Contemporary Verse