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The Arrival of Persephone Springtime. New Zealand

Now, o'er the awaking earth, Persephone
Wanders alone with most mysterious power:
Where'er her footsteps touch there springs a flower;
Her song awakes both butterfly and bee.
The budded trees, beneath her magic spell,
Assume a leafy shape of loveliness;
Bold lilies bloom same shaded as her dress,
The colour of her eyes the bluebells tell.
At sight of her sad love-lorn Echo flees
To bid the hills Persephone is here,
And 'possums play contentedly in trees,
The wild birds wing above each stream and mere.
A tui, silent in his screened domain,
Hears her soft-calling voice and sings again.

—Samuel Hulme Bridgford,
1927.
(Decoration by Frederick Walter Perry)