Charles Tennyson Turner

Loss and Restoration of Smell

Dull to the year's first odours, I rebelled
Against the law which doomed the violets
Ere I had smelt them; but, ere long, I held
A quickened nostril over all the sweets
Of the full summer--for I had besuoght
The All-Giver to restore my blunted sense;
Humbly I prayed, and breath of roses brought
The answer. O! it was a joy intense,
After that dreary interval of loss.
I laughed, I ran about as one possessed;
And now that winter seems my hopes to cross
I snuff the very frost with happy zest,
Proud of recovered power, and fain to win
Fresh triumphs for it, when the Spring comes in.