Be sure to enjoy spring!

Spring is such a wonderful time of the year!
As I write, the birds are warbling, the sun is shining, a stray crow is cawing, the trees are greening, the doors are open, and my back door flower garden is aglow with color–pink hyacinths, yellow pansies, purple phlox, and bright red tulips.
Spring is here to stay and the air is full of hope! No wonder that spring always makes me think of poetry.
If I were a poet, I would write a poem about how invigorated I feel now that spring has come again–in 2012! But alas! I only read poetry, I don’t write it.
One of my favourites is “Daffodils” by William Wordsworth.
“I wandered lonely as a cloud/That floats on high o’er vales and hills/When all at once I saw a crowd/A host, of golden daffodils.”
Can’t you see them? Their heads dancing sprightly in the spring winds.
What a sight! No wonder Wordsworth finishes the poem with “Hope springs eternal in the spring.”
Wordsworth wrote this poem in 1804, 70 years after Alexander Pope penned these immortal words in 1734: “Hope springs eternal in the human breast.”
According to Wikipedia, Pope is the third-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson. But this time, I think Wordsworth improved on Pope’s famous words.
Wordsworth was not plagiarizing by substituting “spring” for “human breast.” No, it had to be said.
“Hope springs eternal in the SPRING.” Yes, especially in the spring!
Spring. The season after winter and before summer. The opposite of autumn. The season of hope–of expectation, anticipation, and optimism.
The brightest season of them all! A season that has inspired poets for centuries.
Walt Whitman wrote, “Give me the splendid silent sun/with all his beams full-dazzling.” Emily Dickinson mused: “A little Madness in the Spring/Is wholesome even for the King.”
And five centuries ago, Thomas Tusser penned the familiar “Sweet April showers/Do spring May flowers” in 1557.
Then, three years later, in 1600, Thomas Nashe composed this little piece of nonsense about spring, “Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing/Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo!”
Spring! The time of humour and hope, of daffodils and cherry blossoms, gentle rains and mud puddles, poetry and young love, of new growth and new beginnings.
And the time of creativity!
If you’ve ever thought of writing poetry, or if you have a way with words, this is the spring to get your thoughts on paper. Or if you prefer photography or watercolours, why not get lasting images of the riot of colour and the greening of the landscape.
Consider taking a morning walk on a nature trail with a friend, or maybe by yourself, and really look around you. Notice the flowering bushes and see how many birds you can identify.
Or just sit in your backyard with your eyes closed, listening to the spring sounds and noticing the sweet smells.
There’s so much to enjoy in the spring. And, remember, it will be nine long months before this beautiful season comes again.
So enjoy, enjoy!
Marie Snider is an award-winning health care writer and syndicated columnist. Write her at thisside60@aol.com or visit www.visit-snider.com

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