Day 7

Happy Spring!

"...one ought every day at least to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words." -Goethe

A song for the first day of spring: "Spring Rain" by the Go-Betweens. The great Australian indie rock band provide an apt soundtrack for this rainy start to the season. If you like what you hear, then check out the full album Liberty Belle and the Black Diamond Express (or try the solid compilation 1978-1990). 

A poem to kick off spring: "Sonnet XXI" from Rainer Maria Rilke's Sonnets to Orpheus. Spring is one of poetry's greatest subjects. Try adding your voice to the conversation with your own spring poem!

Spring has come back again. The Earth is

like a child that’s got poems by heart;

so many poems, so many verses,

patient toil winning her prizes at last.

Strict, the old teacher. We loved the whiteness

in the old gentleman’s beard, its bright snow.

Now when we ask what the green, what the blue is,

Earth knows the answer, has learned it. She knows.

Earth, you’re on holiday, lucky one: play now!

Play with us children! We’ll try to catch you.

Glad, joyous Earth! The gladdest must win.

Every lesson the old teacher taught her,

all that is printed in roots and laborious

stems: now she sings it! Listen, Earth sings!

Rainer Maria Rilke; translated by Stephen Cohn

Works Cited

The Go-Betweens. "Spring Rain." Liberty Belle and the Black Diamond Express, 1986, Beggars Banquet.

Rilke, Rainer Maria (1875-1926). "Sonnet XXI." Sonnets to Orpheus. https://favoritepoems.diehoren.com/2016/04/spring-has-come-back-again.html. Accessed 19 Mar. 2020.