HE halted in the wind, and--what was that
Far in the maples, pale, but not a ghost?
He stood there bringing March against his thought,
And yet too ready to believe the most. "Oh, that's the Paradise-in-bloom, " I said;
And truly it was fair enough for flowers
Had we but in us to assume in March
Such white luxuriance of May for ours. We stood a moment so in a strange world,
Myself as one his own pretense deceives;
And then I said the truth (and we moved on):
A young beech clinging to its last year's leaves.