The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1918-05-31
SPRINGTIDE IN ENGLAND
American Troops Are Sojourning
in Mellow Country.
BY THOMAS BURKE
From Reciprocal News Service
13 Queen Anne's Gate, London


swallow in the springtime," sing
the poet in LA Bohemc," and t
the fields beyond my Berkshir
garden she has returned, markin1
the evening sky with her waywar'
curves and angles. Green and blu
are the Chiltern hills, every patel
creating a deeper or lighter shade
of green or blue, with here anC
there some vivid acres Of yellow
buttercup or celandne. About II
walls of Stoke Poges churchyarc
the hawthorn is in bloom, and the
giant beeches transmute the light
to their own unearthly. . lucidity
Many poets rest in this country and
it is well that they should, for
never comes spring, the poet 5
muse more gently, more essential
ly than in Berkshire and Bucking-
hamshire. Edmund Waller rests
here, and Thomas Gray and Cow
per; and about these sun-dappled
lanes walked Milton, MARVEL,
Shenley, John Gay, and Matthew
Arnold.
Spring has arrived, and cottage
doors are open to the air and the
good gossips come out to the
porches and talk of the prospects
of the fruit crops. In every gar
den, apple and pear, plum and
cherry are waving their foam OF
blossoms against the flecked blue
of the sky; and the bees in their
lazy way are busy in the honied
branches.
1t is the time of Germinal and
green, the color of awakening, has
conquered the brown of the win
ter-time decay. Deep in the woods,
primrose, bluebell, and harebell are
chimin. their blue and gold with
the dark hue of last years beech
nuts; and about the dim paths at
twilight one encounters youths,
solitary or in couples. Every sea-
son is youths season; lovers meet
and make their vows in November
as in March; but with the coming
of spring the earth seems even
more in tune with their private
The couples walk in 81
lent wonder of each others mag
the solitary must on
OF The Scholar Gypsy |
or snatches OF Herrick. or the |
Pervigiliam Neneris, if they are SO
fortunate as 10 possess within their
minds those light echoes OF spring
tides p}~t.
Soon the high bushes OF rhod-
odendrons that line the Bucking
ham lanes will blaze into their
glory of crimson, and the wild rose
will touch this solemn opulence
with its more delicate pinks and
pinks and whites as
never may be reproduced in pig
ment.
On the upper reaches Of the
Thames the waters sparkle with
lew brilliance, and the houseboats,
painted and beflagged, are now in
occupation. In the high woods
,ver Maidenhead, the birds are
making their separate music and
heir flashing color; chaffinch, rob-
II, blackbrd, throstle, woodpecker,
nd white owl. The cuckoo has
een heard long ago, and the night
ay and the nightingale have made
heir first overtures to their mates.
What is there in all this, that hap
ems monotonously every twelve
months, so to stir the blood to
nsettle, and to recall the "old
nhappy far-off things?' Nothing.
)nly one OF the miracles of life;
II astounding miracle that, by rep
tition, has become commonplace.
few, however. do not accept the I
liracle; they marvel still. These =
re the few who, at the first touch $
t blandness in the February air, a
lust be off and away on the roads t
not to ride, but to tramp, to =,
lunter, to make casual encoun- Z
rs at roadside taVernS, and 10 [
lake the nights resting place the p
ace where night finds them. {
heSe are they who can hear; who s
IN hear the first long breaths OF +
Ie awakening earth, and the tiny u
ovementS OF the violet and the il
-imrose as they struggle upward {
the light.
1t is Germanial. The Vigil of s
enus is past. 1t is also the sea- /,
IN OF youth and love. o.. And /:
,uth is dying in thousands. -. il
he earth is awakening. VIII the {
orld awaken at the same sum- G.
ons? il
4 ho,,t tho last nf the contest , al