How like a winter hath thine absence been
From one source o’er the fleeting years!
What freezings felt, what dark days seen
Whilst old D’cember a white sheet wears.
Now summer and his pleasures wait on thee,
As thou doth enter another anniversarial day.
The birds do sing, and with so loud a cheer,
That leaves once pale, turn green for thou art near

On KEH writing cards

How so like a winter hath thy mood been
For thee, the pleasure of the fleeting ink!
What freezings hast thou felt, what dark days seen!
What old December’s bareness every where!
And yet this time of writing was summer’s time,
The teeming autumn, big with rich increase,
Bearing the wanton burden of the time,
Like widow’d wombs after their lords’ decease:
Yet this abundant issue seem’d to be
But hope of orphans and unfather’d fruit;
For summer and his pleasures wait on thee,
And, thou in mood, the very birds are mute;
Or, if they sing, ’tis with so dull a cheer
That leaves look pale, dreading the winter’s near.