“Spring Will Come like a Thief in the Night”

Photo by David Russell Mosley

Spring still hasn’t fully come here in New Hampshire. The last frost is still a few weeks away. And yet we continue to see the signs of Spring. Some days are warmer than others, the sun occasionally signs, and the trees are beginning to bud. So, here’s a little villanelle I wrote for the coming of Spring, given to you in this sort of octave of Earth Day.

The days grow long, but Winter’s wind still bites,
And every morning grass is covered in frost,
But Spring will come like a thief in the night.

Her greening power will make everything right.
She will bring home all things that once were lost,
As the days grow long, and Winter’s wind still bites.

We may not yet see her, for sin has dimmed our sight,
And in her tempests all our senses tossed,
But Spring will come like a thief in the night.

Her verdant power does not rest alone in might,
But in meekness that knows to count the cost,
As the days grow long and Winter’s wind still bites.

Plants will bud and birds will take new flight,
Like new-learned words only just recently glossed,
For Spring will come like a thief in the night.

Yes, she will come, we have no need of fright,
For Death’s domain has been emptied out and tossed.
Yes, the days grow long, and Winter’s wind still bites,
But Spring will come like a thief in the night.