The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1909-04-02
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IN EaJfer EsSdY -

I'm EaSfer Essay -


sciousness OF wings stirs in the buried
seed, and as II from very gladness OF
heart the sap I'm the naked trees
mounts upward. ever upward, into the
golden light. The tiny leaves, close
clasped together in the bud. hutter
timidly apart. to grow bravely green,
and tiaunt their color on the passing
breeze. The maple tree in the yard
now hears voice out of the unseen.
calling from the blue skies. bidding II
come up higher, and gladly does 1t
make answer in the green tassels and
shining leaves, telling OF new growth
and broader horizon.
out on the old arbor, the rough and
scraggy grapevine is sending forth
little gray tendrils, reaching farther
toward heaven and away from the
earth that hides its foothold How
blithely does nature echo forth her
yearly message TO every waiting heart
her message OF resurrection. joyous
activity, highmOunting aspiration!
Her myriad voices cry through every
sense. TO touch and penetrate the spir-
II with gladness and good cheer. New
readings from the Gospel of eternal
hope are seen on every side, in the
growth OF plant. the unfolding of leaf,
the blossoming OF flower. The woods
are full OF these shy spring darlings-
violets, dandelions, adder's tongues.
spring beauties, bluebels and many
a nameless wildling. all hurrying gay.
ly TO deck the earth and celebrate the
Eastertide.
Certain flowers and plants have al.
ways been set apart as sacred things,
and from the very dawn Of history we
hear of fiower-decked affairs and
wreaths of sacrifice. The heather
temples were adorned with earth's
fairest blossoms, scattered on the al.
tars, and twined around the brow OF
priest and acolyte. The amaranth
bloomed in deathless beauty upon the
Olympian heights, the myrtle was be.
loved OF Apollo the rose, the lily. the
mistletoe were favorites OF legend and
myth. The flowers once sacred to
Freya, the spring goddess of northern
mythology, were chosen for their spot.
less purity, In form and color. And
when heather myth gave place to
Christian truth. these sacred treasures
were transferred TO the Virgin, and be.
came symbols OF the queen Of heaven.
So II is that in every story of saint
or madonna we find either the lily OF
the rose-the lily with its fragrance,
its bending. bowling, waving bells,
seems to whisper of purity and wor
ship the rose, with its faint and far
away odor, which seems TO hint OF
eternal hope. one might almost fill
garden with flowers all named for the
chance to blossom on Our Lady's days
(such as the visitation, the assump.
ton, her birth, baptism, publication.
There are lady's slipper lady's mantle,
lady's fingers, lady's smock, lady's
tresses. Virgins bower, or clematis,
begins to bloom in July, the feast OF
visitation, and is at full bloom at as.
sumption in August.
The lily was first found in connec.
ton with the Virgin in the story OF
her ascension 20 heaven, and It orig
mated probably in the second century.
According to this legend, IL was three
days after the burial OF our Lords
mother than the apostles visited and
opened her grave and found ii filled
with fragrant. spotless lilies. Since
them these matchless flowers have
been called Madonna lilies" or flow
ers OF the Virgin" The common
white lily OF our gardens. that blooms
in July, and is the sweetest and most
graceful of all flowers, might well be
called holy" No one seems TO know
its origin. 1t is never found wild in
Palestine, nor can we find just where
1t grows without culture. But we see
ii in the faded pictures Of old Italian
masters and Netherland painters,
made long before the discovery OF this
New World.
Nearly all of our great poets have
praised this flower Chaucer and
Spenser speak Of it as mystical bios
som In their far-away gardens and
lady's bowers. Shakespeare 1t was
who first said: ITO gild refined gold
and paint the lily" and these lines
from one of his sonnets tell truth
that can never be forgotten:
For sweetest things turn sourest by
their deeds,
Lilies that tester smell far worse than
weeds.
Milton loved the lily and always
spoke OF it in connection with the rose
-as did also Swinburne when he talks
OF
The lilies and languors OF virtue;
The roses and raptures OF vice.
And Tennyson says OF Maud's garden
that II was
Fairer than aught in the world beside,
All made up of the lily and the rose.
Dear Old Herrick, that sweet singer OF
spring, has one lily thought that is
like a sigh:
But vanished man,
Like to a lily lost, never can bloom
anew
Or bring his days to a second spring.
Shelley has the lily in his wonder
full garden along with his sensitive
plant. Wordsworth often praises II.
Burns mentions II frequently. Tenny-
son has lovely lily thoughts; but our
own Longfellow draws the prettiest
picture of maidenhood-
Bears a lily in thy hand
Gates OF brass cannot withstand
One touch OF that magic wand
James Russell Lowell always comes
near to the heart Of things and left us
more than one sweet lily poem and