Victoriaans gedicht van Laetitia Landon

APPLE BLOSSOMS

OF all the months that fill the year
Give April's month to me,
For earth and sky are then so filled
With sweet variety.

The apple-blossoms' shower of pearl,
Though blent with rosier hue, —
As beautiful as woman's blush,
As evanescent to.

On every bough there is a bud,
In every bud a flower:
But scarcely bud or flower will last
Beyond the present hour.

Now comes a shower-cloud o'er the sky,
Then all again sunshine;
Then clouds again, but brightened with
The rainbow's coloured line.

Ay, this is the month for me:
I could not love a scene
Where the blue sky was always blue,
The green earthalways green.

Laetitia E. Landon (1802-1838)
Uit: A Victorian Posy — Penghalion's scented treasury of verse and prose, edited by Sheila Pickles. (London, Pavilion Books Limited, 1987.)

De illustratie op de pagina tegenover het gedicht in het boek, en hieronder afgedrukt, is van Helen Allingham (1848-1926).
Meer poëzie uit dezelfde bundel — in de vorm van een gedicht van Christina Rossetti — is te vinden op Nederlandse de fin de siècle-cultuurwebsite All art is quite useless van Rond1900.nl in een bijdrage van heden.