An excerpt from Warble for Lilac-Time, by Walt Whitman

The maple woods, the crisp February days and the,
sugar making,
The robin where he hops, bright-eyed, brown-breasted, 
With musical clear call at sunrise, and again at sunset,
Or flitting among the trees of the apple-orchard, building 
     the nest of his mate,
The melted snow of March, the willow sending forth its 
     yellow-green sprouts, 
For spring-time is here! the summer is here! and what is
      this in it and from it?

It is Lilac Time. It’s flitting time. Flitting is such a Spring word, isn’t it?

Whitman walks us from February into March. Describes what the Maple and willow trees make, and shares that small image you might miss – the robin building his mate’s nest.