The coming of spring inspires line after line of verse, note after note of melody, and with very good reason. This year, winter seems reluctant to release its icy grip on the Washington Area and the Shenandoah Valley (which the Montgomery County Police have coped with through humorous tweeting, reports a Washington Post article, after it snowed on Saturday). But we have had a few glorious glimpses so far, and it will be here to stay before too long. Here are some lines to keep close while we wait, from some of the most impassioned chroniclers of Spring’s triumphal entry:
“Nothing is so beautiful as Spring…
What is all this juice and all this joy?”
– Gerard Manley Hopkins
“I am amazed at this spring, this conflagration
Of green fires lit on the soil of the earth, this blaze
Of growing…”
– D.H. Lawrence
“And frosts are slain and flowers begotten
And in green underwood and cover
Blossom by blossom the spring begins”
– A.C. Swinburne
“Fair are the meadows, fairer still the woodlands
Clothed in the blooming garb of spring…”
– Hymn “Fairest Lord Jesus”
What is your favorite part about the arrival of spring? Think about it and try to savor it for a moment. Better yet, go and seek it out. Mine is the smell. Most particularly, I love the smell of the sun-soaked earth after the daystar has gone to bed, the warmth lingering softly in humid air, where the musk of new blossoms hangs like a velvet curtain. I love the feeling of new life all around me. I love knowing that even when it’s dark outside, things are growing, pushing, rooting, sprouting, drinking, forming. Even in the quietest hours, there is a thunderous symphony of Creation in every moment.
Join in the chorus of Spring, even if it’s coming in bits and pieces, and a little slower than we might like. It is the Earth’s remembrance, its celebration in Eastertide of the new life offered to us through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is the song of Spring, that God sings so sweetly to us each time we walk outside and take in the good work of His hands. Won’t you hum along?