The Parting and the Coming Guest + 

Who watched the worn-out Winter die? + 

Who, peering through the window-pane + 

At nightfall, under sleet and rain + 

Saw the old graybeard totter by? + 

Who listened to his parting sigh, + 

The sobbing of his feeble breath, + 

His whispered colloquy with Death, + 

And when his all of life was done + 

Stood near to bid a last good-bye? + 

Of all his former friends not one + 

Saw the forsaken Winter die. + 

Who welcomed in the maiden Spring? + 

Who heard her foot-fall, swift and light + 

As fairy-dancing in the night? + 

Who guessed what happy dawn would bring + 

The flutter of her bluebird’s wing, + 

The blossom of her mayflower-face + 

To brighten every shady place? + 

One morning, down the village street, + 

“Oh, here am I,” we heard her sing⁠— + 

And none had been awake to greet + 

The coming of the maiden Spring. + 

But look, her violet eyes are wet + 

With bright, unfallen, dewy tears; + 

And in her song my fancy hears + 

A note of sorrow trembling yet. + 

Perhaps, beyond the town, she met + 

Old Winter as he limped away + 

To die forlorn, and let him lay + 

His weary head upon her knee, + 

And kissed his forehead with regret + 

For one so gray and lonely⁠—see, + 

Her eyes with tender tears are wet. + 

And so, by night, while we were all at rest, + 

I think the coming sped the parting guest. + 