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Birds and poets, with other papers. Author's ed
Birds and poets with other papers Author's ed Author:John Burroughs Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SPRING POEMS. THERE is no month oftener on the tongues of the poets than April. It is the initiative month ; it opens the door of the seasons ; the interest a... more »nd expectations of the untried, the untasted, lurk in it. " From you have I been absent in the spring," Bays Shakespeare in one of his sonnets, " When proud-pied April, dressed in all his trim, Hath put a spirit of youth in everything, That heavy Saturn laughed and leaped with him." The following poem from Tennyson's "In Memoriam " might be headed " April," and serve as descriptive of parts of our season :? " Now fades the last long streak of snow, Now bourgeons every maze of quick About the flowering squares, and thick By ashen roots the violets blow. Now rings the woodland loud and long, The distance takes a lovelier hue, And drown'd in yonder living blue The lark becomes a sightless song. Now dance the lights on lawn and lea, The flocks are whiter down the vale, And milkier every milky sail On winding stream or distant sea; Where now the sea-mew pipes, or dives In yonder greening gleam, and fly The happy birds, that change their sky To build and brood; that live their lives From land to land; and in my breast Spring wakens too; and my regret Becomes an April violet, And buds and blossoms like the rest." In the same poem the poet aska :? " Can trouble live with April days ?" Yet they are not all jubilant chords that this season awakens. Occasionally there is an undertone of vague longing and sadness, akin to that which one experiences in autumn. Hope for a moment assumes the attitude of memory and stands with reverted look. The haze that in spring as well as in fall sometimes descends and envelops allthings, has in it in some way the sentiment of music, of melody, a...« less