Some say the robins didn’t leave Savoy this winter, so I didn’t count seeing my first robin as marking the arrival of Spring. With the first snow melt, the pansies bloomed in early January, but clearly it wasn't yet Spring. The landscaping crew came March 11 to clear the flower beds and uncover the new growth on the perennials, however, I still had to wear my winter jacket some days after that. However, on St. Patrick’s Day, I put the top down on the little red convertible, zipped around town, and welcomed Spring, only a few days before its official arrival today.
Seeing the bulbs adding growth daily since they sprung from the ground, admiring the snowdrops and crocus which are in full bloom, and driving that topless T-Bird, intellectually told me Spring had arrived. But the best part for me is a new feeling inside that I discovered on a walk with Yorkie Zoe. Breathing in the freshness of newly tilled soil and feeling the breeze that has swept winter away has awakened my soul to sing a new song, has put a joy in my step, for I have awakened from winter too. Amen.
Robert Browning
ReplyDeleteHome Thoughts, from Abroad
O, to be in England
Now that April 's there,
And whoever wakes in England
Sees, some morning, unaware,
That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf
Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,
While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough
In England—now!
And after April, when May follows,
And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows!
Hark, where my blossom'd pear-tree in the hedge
Leans to the field and scatters on the clover
Blossoms and dewdrops—at the bent spray's edge—
That 's the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over,
Lest you should think he never could recapture
The first fine careless rapture!
[I leave off the final four lines, as Browning ought to have done. After these 14 excellent lines, he really disappoints in the final four.]