Wednesday, March 21, 2012

It's the first day of spring! Spring fever anyone?

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21, 2012




SPRING HAS SPRUNG!

A little Madness in the Spring
Is wholesome even for the King.

- Emily Dickinson


It's March 21st, also known as the vernal equinox.  Freshness and renewal are in the air.  It's time for spring cleaning and lighter clothing.  As the great American poet Emily Dickinson suggests, perhaps a little good-natured craziness is order.  Spring fever anyone? 


Emily Dickinson


THE SEASON OF ROMANCE

Of course, spring is also the time for romance.  It was the English poet, Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809 - 1892), who wrote:

In the spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to love.

That line was written by Tennyson in 1835 in his poem Locksley Hall.  It was published in his 1842 volume of poems.  Tennyson was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom during the reign of Queen Vistoria.  He was born in August of 1809 at Somersby, Lincolnshire and succeeded William Wordsworth as Poet Laureate in 1850.   (I would be remiss if I did not point out, Lord Tennyson, that a young woman's fancy also turns to love in the spring.)


Alfred, Lord Tennyson


Spring is necessary

 
Spring is necessary.  We all have to recharge our batteries.  The time for hibernation is over.  Awaken from your slumber.  Let there be light!

Is it so small a thing
To have enjoyed the sun,
To have lived light in the spring,
To have loved, to have thought, to have done;
To have advanced true friends, and
beat down baffling foes?

- Matthew Arnold (1822 -1888), British poet and social critic
From Empedocles on Etna {1852}


We need spring.  We need it desperately and usually, we need it before God is willing to give it to us.

- Peter John Gzowski (1934 - 2002), Canadian broadcaster
From Peter Gzowski's Spring Tonic [1979]


When spring came, even the false spring, there were no problems except where to be the happiest.  The only thing that could spoil a day was people and if you could keep from making engagements, each day had no limits.  People were always the limiters of happiness except for the very few that were as good as spring itself.

- Ernest Hemingway (1899 - 1961), American author
From A Moveable Feast


Spring will not be denied

Pablo Neruda

The circle of life contines and spring will not be denied.  The Chilean poet and politician, Pablo Neruda (104 - 1973) wrote:

You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep spring from coming.


- Joanne