All faintly through my soul to-day, As from a bell that far away Is tinkled by some frolic fay, Floateth a lovely chiming. Thou magic bell, to many a fell And many a winter-saddened dell Thy tongue a tale of Spring doth tell, Too passionate-sweet for rhyming.
Chime out, thou little song of Spring, Float in the blue skies ravishing. Thy song-of-life a joy doth bring That's sweet, albeit fleeting. Float on the Spring-winds e'en to my home: And when thou to a rose shalt come That hath begun to show her bloom, Say, I send her greeting!
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📖 About this poem
This little poem is really a message tucked inside a melody. Lanier, adapting Herder's German original, imagines spring arriving not as weather but as sound — a faint, chiming bell carried by a "frolic fay," faraway and half-imaginary. That image sets the tone: spring here is felt before it's seen, more mood than season. The verse itself chimes too, with short rhyming lines that ring like the bell it describes, building a musical momentum that mirrors its subject.
The poem's real charm shows up in its ending, where the abstract turns tender: the singer asks the spring-wind to carry his greeting home, specifically to a rose just beginning to bloom. Suddenly the whole airy fantasy becomes a love note, sent through nature rather than words. That's why it still resonates — it captures how the first warm days can make you think of someone, and how joy, however fleeting, is worth chiming about anyway.
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