Little leafy brothers! You can feel
Warmth o' the sun,
Cool sap streams run,
The slow soft nuzzling creep
Of roots sent deep,
And a close-anchored flowing
In winds smooth blowing.
And in the spring! The spring!
When the stars sing —
The world's love in you grows
Into the rose.

Little hairy brothers! You can feel
The kind sun too;
Winds play with you,
Water is live delight —
In your own swift flight
Of wings or leaping feet
Life rushes sweet —
And in the Spring! the spring!
When the stars sing —

And in the spring! the spring!
When the stars sing —
The world's love stirs you first
To wild sweet thirst,
Mad combat glorious, and so
To what you know
Of love in living. Yes, to you first came
The joy past name
Of interchange — the small mouth pressed
To the warm breast!

But O the human brothers! We can feel
All, all below
These small ones know —
Earth fair and good,
The bubbling flood
Of life a-growing — in us multiplied
As man spreads wide;
Not into leaves alone,
Nor flesh and bone,
But roof and wall and wheel
Of stone and steel;
Soft foliage and gorgeous bloom
Of murmuring loom;
And fruit of joy — o'erburdened heart
Poured forth in art!
We can not only leap in the sun,
Wrestle and run,
But know the music-measured beat
Of dancing feet,
The interplay of hands — we hold
Delight of doing, myriad-fold
Joy of the rose we know —
To bloom — to grow;
Joy of the beast we prove
To strive — to move;
And in the spring! the spring!
When the stars sing —
Wide gladness of all living men
Comes back again
A conscious universe at rest
In one's own breast!
The world's love! Wholly ours,
Through the breathing flowers,
Through all the living tumult of the wood
In us made good,
Through centuries that rise and fall —
We hold it all!
The world's love! Given words at last to speak,
Though yet so weak.
The world's love! Given hands that hold so much —
Lips that may touch —
The world's love! Sweet — it lies
In your dear eyes!