"Spring Intermezzo" 2017

A Review of March and April

*

"Spring has returned,

The Earth is like a child that knows poems." 

-Rainer Maria Rilke

*

*



*

*
*

*

*




*

*

"Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.

Now, of my threescore years and ten,
Twenty will not come again,
And take from seventy springs a score,
It only leaves me fifty more......."

A. E. Housman (1859-1936)

*

"Never yet was a springtime, when the buds forgot to bloom."

-Margaret Elizabeth Sangster

*
*

 
"In the spring I have counted one hundred and thirty-six different kinds of weather 

inside of four and twenty hours."
-Mark Twain

*

*

*

*

*

 *

*

*
*

"It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: 

when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade."
-Charles Dickens

 

 *



***
*



 In Memoriam

Now fades the last long streak of snow,
      Now burgeons 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 seamew 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. 

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Canto CXV from In Memoriam. 
  

This canto from Alfred, Lord Tennyson‘s long elegy In Memoriam A. H. H. (1850) 

offers a more bittersweet take on the arrival of spring.

What grows in the speaker’s breast as spring comes into blossom is regret –
regret that his dear friend is gone,
that spring is a reminder that the world continues to turn and life carries on,

but friends does not return




*
*
*



"Can words describe the fragrance of the very breath of spring?" 

-Neltje Blanchan

 

 *

 *

*
*

 
Video edited by Andreea Petcu - http:// www.andreeapetcu.com
Artist: Steve Middleton

Sunrise in March...

*

Sunny days in April...

 
*
Hellebores...

*

*

*

 *

"I love spring anywhere, but if I could choose I would always greet it in a garden."   

-Ruth Stout

***

***
 

"Spring is when life’s alive in everything." 

-Christina Rossetti

*

"I think that no matter how old or infirm I may become, 

I will always plant a large garden in the spring...

...Who can resist the feelings of hope and joy that one gets from participating in nature’s rebirth?" 

-Edward Giobbi

*

*

*
***
*



*
*

"It’s spring fever.

...That is what the name of it is.... 

...And when you’ve got it, you want -....

....– oh, you don’t quite know what it is you do want,

...but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!" 

-Mark Twain

...???...

?

***
*

 The unmistakable sign of SPRING:
 Flocks of cranes...

 

...coming from their southern winter quarters...
...heading North...


...passing La Pouyette...
as every year!


*
*

"Spring makes its own statement, 
so loud and clear that the gardener seems to be only one of the instruments, 
not the composer."  

-Geoffrey B. Charlesworth

 *

*
*

A Light exists in Spring
Not present on the Year
At any other period –
When March is scarcely here




A Color stands abroad
On Solitary Fields
That Science cannot overtake
But Human Nature feels.

It waits upon the Lawn,
It shows the furthest Tree
Upon the furthest Slope you know
It almost speaks to you.

Then as Horizons step
Or Noons report away
Without the Formula of sound
It passes and we stay –

A quality of loss
Affecting our Content
As Trade had suddenly encroached
Upon a Sacrament.

Emily Dickinson

*
*

*



* * *

As the day draws to a close, 

 *

 ...it's time to reflect and to dream....

...in harmony with a beautiful Spring sunset.

***
*
*

"In springtime, love is carried on the breeze.
Watch out for flying passion or kisses whizzing by your head."
Emma Racine deFleur

*

*

Wishing you all a wonderful Springtime - wherever you are!

*

On a rainy and grey day...
more Spring posts you might enjoy

here

and
here

or simply click at the archive on "Spring"

A bientôt....

*
*