The Big Stone Gap post. [volume] (Big Stone Gap, Wise County, Va.) 1892-1928, 1894-05-03
IMAGERY OF SPRING.
Glorious Conceptions Of tho Resurrection
OF thu Year.

Glorious Conceptions Of the Resurrection
OF thu Year.
Spring has come! For considerable
part Of the human race this is the most
beautiful sentence in language. It an
nounces the arrival of new life, a re-
newal OF hope, an end OF various suffer
ing, conflict, encouragement. Spring.
or at least some show Of change and
renewal, is always coming somewhere,
but nowhere does it mean So much as
III these northern ATTITUDES for the
| farmer, the poet, the young maiden
and the boy. There is not q human
being in these latitudcs who docs not
know when the sap begins 10 run up
the tree trunks. 1t is then if ever,
that the poet taps the bo!cs. and gathers
the sweet fluid into q bucket and bo:ls
it down into poem. Or il is thco, if
he prefers another figure, that he
begins to sing like the early hirds, who
are stimulated by the tint OF Green and
the flush of blossoms to thoughts OF do
nestle life. Why is it that spring poet
ry is considered ':frcs,l" and is quoted
low in the market? There is notion
that it is immature. People say That
| they do not care to drink SO much sap;
they want art applied to tho natural
product; they want it boiled down
| till it will crystalline. They say that
much of the spring poetry is sticky, ~
which they mean sentimental. There
is some injustice in this The poet IS
really moved by the universal sentl-
ment, and it seems hard that his prot
net should be classed as raw material
There is no sound sweeter TO country
ears than the cackle of the spring hen
some morning when the south wind
! blows and the snow banks are SHRINK
ing away, when the barn door is open,
aud the caves are dripping. and the
fcccy clouds promise transition, fota
showers and fine weather The hen IS
not making music, but she announces
that she has begun the production OF
a somewhat indefinite series OF new
lives. 10 us who know life there IS a
note OF sadness in the caclile. for 1t IS
probable that the maternal instinct OF
the hen is to be disappointed by the
nest-hunting boy and the greed of the
family, and all her exuberant Joy OF
life turned into 4 commercial opera
ton. But no objection is made against
the eggs because they are too fresh.
Nor is any question raised by tnc
statesmen in Washington whether
they are raw material or finished
product. To the hen they arc both.
The hen is no tariff rcformer. She IS
just solicitous for the prosperity Of her
race The poet is sometimes more cut
pable than the hen. lie has nc amol-
tious patience to sit upon his eggs
long enough to deterNine whether
they have or have not life in them, but
he sells them to the magazines and
newspapers, and the public is SO often
deceived that it raises cry that "a"
material should not come in free.
But this line of remark belittes tire
glorious conception of the resurrection
time of the year. 1t is a sort OF Miriam
song of triumph that the Red Sea IS
passed, and that the horrid forces OF
the enemy are drowned in the spring
freshet. There is also in it the feeling
of security and confidence that what
ever Frost and Thaw may do hereafter,
things are going in the right direction,
and the sun is every morning rising
further north. In this cxultant spirit
it is easy to forgive enemies and cred
itors. There arc SO many signs OF
coming abundance and gracious ease
in living. Spring has come! But let
there be no grains of deception in these
| papers. 1t has come to the reader. but
not to the writer. There can be 10
confidence in the study if its integrity.
| is doubted. Its reasoning may not
! commend itself to the reader, but ii is
necessary that there should be bclief
in it's honesty. While this song OF the
Vcrnal Equinox is being penned, the
ground is white with snow, the bare
! branches of the trees are thraShin%
| about in cruel northwest gale, there
is.a sort of lurid ligh: along the west
ern sky, which if seen by sailor at
sea would make him reef his sails and
send the passengers below, and the
telegraph announces that q Rocky
Mountain cyclone is travelling thithcr,
Waiting along in the arms of q Texan
hurricane. These are the facts. All
the rest is the work of the magma
ton. And it is justified. For the New
England man, most part of the year
lives by his imagination. Without II
he would perish. Charles Dudley War
ncr, in uarper's Magazine.