SPRING.

Waikato Times, Volume 98, Issue 15341, 15 September 1923, Page 11 (Supplement)

SPRING.

THE VOICEB OF THE POETS.

(By "Marama.")

Spring is well, upon us, and the •weather is worthy. This, however, Is at the time of writing, and with Us native fickleness it may be Quite different when this is read. Somehow we do not herald Spring with such enthusiasm as our forefathers showed. To them it was the great festival, when joy and happiness returned to the world. It is probable that if we Inew all the reasons for the rejoicing they would be found to be somewhat mundane. A few centuries back comforts were rare, although splendour might be found. Fires in winter were common enough, but doors did not fit and admitted draughts; there were no warm floor coverings. Glass for the windows was unknown. Chimneys were not always provided. Above all, food was monotonous. At the beginning of winter quantities of bncf were salted down, and were catefi with few vegetables, for most of those we now use were unknown Small beer for common drink and Spanish wine on high occasions slaked a thirst that must have been considerable. It is not difficult to understand why our forefathers hailed the return of longer days and warmer weather.

Then In the Boyhood of the Year.

That they did hail the Spring with rejoicing is written largely on all the poetry and literature that has come down to us. When Ghauoer sets out tc tell us of the pilgrimage to Canterbury he starts the assembly in springtime.

When that Aprllle with his shouses soote The droghte or Marcne Hath pierced to the roote. A pilgrimage would not be undertaken in winter, when roads were bad and travelling difficult. Chaucer, like so many of our poets, was a Londoner by birth, and doubtless knew the craving that 'comes upon those who have dwelt Jong among bricks and mortar for a sight of the green fields, tor open spaces, and country sounds, and freedom for constant companionship. It is when we come, however, to Shakespeare that we have the full flavour of the Spring. The country lad who came to town at the age of eighteen, and for many years did not sec his birthplace. With tb/e return of Spring came the homesickness for the old familiar sights and sounds, and his dramas have constant references to it. "When well-apparelled April on the heels of limping winter treads"; "With all the uncertain glory of an April day"; "Yonder blessed moon that tops with silver all the fruit tree tops." His lyrics are a constant appeal to the joys of Spring in the country.

k. "It was a lover and his lass. •■That through the green cornfields did 7 pass." end the famous "Under the Greenwood Tree.". These are all the dreams bf the past.

"Such sights as youthful poets dream "On summer eve by haunted stream." But Shakespeare loved also the home ■ly sights of the countryside: "The white sheet bleaching on the hedge." It all brought back to him childhood and freedom and friends, and then Shakespeare had the magic which clothes every sentiment in unforgettable splendour. j

Among the Flowers In May.

The Elizabethans were great on Spring. The world was opening to them, and England was beginning to take its place as one of the great Powers. But a generation or so later, when the brilliant prospects had clouded over, we still find the poets celebrating Spring. ''Come my Gorinnacome, let's go aMayjng." Milton in the early part tof "L'Allegro" breathes the very air pf early dawn in early' Spring: ■ "To hear the lark begin his night, ; And singing startle the dull night • From his watch tower in the skies, I Till the dappled dawn doth rise." He was young then and the mood never returned, but there are lovers of poetry who think "L'Allegro" and "II Penserose" better than "Paradise Lost and Regained." He was a great man, and his influence permeated poetry for. the next century, but it was not these two poems which were copied. The literary men of Queen Anne's time had little sympathy with rustic joys and pleasures. Their thoughts centred in town, and when they wrote of the country they still treated it as peopled by nymphs and shepherdesses. When romance came back into its own, literature came out of doors again. Scott In poetry and prose is an open-air pian. ■ "O, Brignall banks are rresn and Tair, And Gretna woods are green." land his appeal: "Waken lords and ladles gay, On the mountain dawns the day." His thoughts ever ran on action and movement. Even Coleridge the philosopher, who was deep in the subjective and the objective, was touched by the Spring. But springtime and pleasure and sunny warm weather, "and 6inging and loving all come back together." Coleridge was a great poet, though he wrote but little, but a sentiment which is shared with all mankind •is not what commonly ap- ' peals to him. If he could be moved With the annual miracle of Springtime j: is not wonderful that Tennyson, With his intense love of Nature, responds to It. "Like souls that balance Joy and pain, With tears and smiles from heaven again The maiden Spring upon the plain, Came in a sunlit fall of rain."

As one runs over the old remembered scraps, a feeling of thankfulness arises to those who have been able to put Into words the feelings that stir so many who could not And fitting ex-

- . pression. Even here where winter is %&4, niilder, the lengthening of the days, | '.: the turn of the year, stirs a deep feeling that we are in some way akin to Nature. Even the town dweller feels it, and is sometimes inclined to lament that his lot was not cast in the country, with fresh air, wide spaces, and freedom. He must content himself With tasting the joys at secondhand, through the eyes and voices of the poets. if is perhaps not a had alternative, for poetry when we have come to love it is a perennial joy, and Spring touches but one side of the pleasure it gives. So long as we can enjoy and appreciate Spring we can bid defiance to age. "Call him not old whose visionary brain Igaas o'er the past its undivided reign." \aW is to most of us a struggle, "Toil-

ing, rejoicing, sorrowing," but so long f as we can rejoice in Nature and apprc- } ciate the annua) miracle, we can feci 1 that tfeerc is something left to live lor.