Ellsworth American., 1908-05-06
Dear Mutual Friends:
THE AMERICAN,
Ellsworth. Me.

jokes which appear at this session of the
year at the expense of the poet who writes
an lode to SPRING; we know all about
the rhyme which says birds are on the
wing" and many another similar Jingle
nevertheless, while Mendelssohn IS
''Spring Song" and Tennyson's "Queen OF
the May" are not yet consigned I'd the
absolete, surely we can say: "How do you
do?" to Spring in our first issue of
May. l even dare to go further, much
to the d,smay-no, stronger word is
needed, let us say disgust Of those who
take an entirly practical view of spring
wea, her; who consider the sunshine SIS
only means for the discovery OF dirt; !;
who recognize the south wind as All
expelling force when carpets are stretched
on a line; who appreciate the longer days
because they bring more time for cleans
ing efforts.
am going to submit to you this week
the poetical and refreshing and ''revised
version" of spring-a version revised
each year.
1t will be presented to you in bits of
rhyme culled from old poems, some of
which you read in the ola red school
house. or the schoolhouse OF some other
color, as you ''toed the crack" in the
floor and spelled out some of the longer
words in the lines and wondered at the
meaning of some of the stanzas. In one
the grass was make to say:
Here ! come creeping, creeping everywhere,
BY the dusty roadside.
On the sunny hillside,
Close by the noisy brook,
In every shady nook.
come creeping, creeping everywhere.
Here l come creeping, creeping everywhere.
You cannot see me coming.
Nor hear my low, sweet humming,
For in the starry night,
And the glad morning light
I M OF niry bara
What memoriers do these lines recall to
you? To one mother they bring back the
vision of a fair-haired little boy, who in
many earlier years never failed to pick
the first blades OF green grass which he
found each spring and take them TO his
mother, not only one day, but lor days in
succession, to prove how the grass was
growing.
Another thought which comes from the
second stanZa quoted: How many of us
have realized that the grass has grown
wonderfully in even one STARRY night,
and how wonderful also is the gradual
shading from the faded brown on the hill
sides to the softer shades of green, until
finally the green predominates entirely?
One poet has written on MAY" as fol-
lows:
The spirit of the gentle south wind calls,
From his blue throne of air,
Anu WucIe his Whispering VOICE IN music
falls,
Beauty is budding there;
The waving verdure rolls along the plain,
And the wide forest weayes-
To welcome back its playful mates again
4 canopy of leaves.
The following is from poem by Eliza
beth Barrett Browning:
The little cares that fretted me,
lost them yesterday.
Among the felds above the sea-
Among the winds at play:
Among the lowing of the herds,
The rustling OF the trees;
Among the singing of the birds,
The hpmming Of the bees.
----- .
From the s.Song of Robin:
heard a robin singing,
When the skies were dark above.
And from the song lesson learned
OF hope and trust and love.
It spoke to me Of patience,
OF spring our hearts shall know,
Where snow of winter falleth not
And cold winds never blow.
am indebted to Aunt Emma for several
of the quotations, as / found them among
clippings she has sent.