St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1894-04-12
SPRING.


| able part of the human race this is
the most beautiful sentence in lam
guage. 1t announces the arrival of
a new life, renewal OF hope, an end
of various suffering, conflict, discour-
agement. Spring, or at least some
| show of change and renewal, is al
ways coming somewhere, but no.
where does it mean so much as in
| these northern latitudes for the poet,
| the young maiden and the boy.
| There is not a human being in these
| ATTITUDES who does not know when
| the sap begins to run up the tree
| trunks. 1t is then, if ever, that the
poet taps the boles, and gathers the
sweet fluid into a bucket and boils
| it down into a poem. Or it is then,
if he prefers another figure, that he
begins to sing like the early birds,
| who are stimulated by the tint of
green and the flush of blossoms to
thoughts of domestic life. Why is it
that spring poetry is considered
fresh" and is quoted low in the
market? There is notion that it
is immature. People say they do
not care to drink so much sap; they
want art applied to the natural
| product; they want it boiled down
till it will crystalize They say
much of the spring poetry is stickey,
by which they mean sentimental.
There is some injustice in this. The
poet is really moved by the univer-
sal sentiment, and it seems hard
that his product should be classed as
raw material.
There is no sound sweeter to coun-
try ears than the cackle of the spring
hen some morning when the south
wind blows and the snow banks are
shrinking away, when the barn
door is open, and the caves are
dripping, and the f1eecy clouds prom
Use transition, both showers and fine
weather. The hen is not making
music, but she announces that she
has begun the production of some
what indefinite series of new lives.
To US who know life there is sad
ness in the cackle, for it is probable
| that the maternal instinct of the
hen is to be disappointed by the
| estimating boy and the greed of
| the family, and all the exuberant
| JOY of life turned into a commercial
| operation. But no objection is made
against the eggs because they are
too fresh. Nor is any question
raised by the statesmen in Washing
ton whether they are raw material
or finished product. To the hen they
are both. The hen is no tariff re-
former. She is just solicitous for
the prosperity of her race. The poet
is sometimes more culpable than the
hen. He has no ambitious patience
to sit upon his eggs long enough to
determine whether they have or
have not life in them, but he sells
them to the magazines and news
papers, and the public is so often de-
ceived that it raises a cry that raw
material should not come in free.
But this line of remark belittles the
glorious conception of the resurrec-
ton time of year. 1t is a sort Of
Miriam song of triumph that the
Red Sea is passed, and the horrid
forces of the enemy are drowned in
the spring freshet. There is also in
it the feeling of security and conf
dence that whatever Frost and
Thaw may do hereafter, things are
going in the right direction, and the
sun is every morning rising further
north. In this exultant spirit it is
easy to forgive enemies and credi-
tors.-[Charles Dudley Warner, in
Harper's Magazine for April.