March 21, 2011

Spring!

 Child with an Orange, by Vincent van Gogh

Spring! And Earth is like a child
who has learned many poems by heart.
For the trouble of that long learning
she wins the prize.

Her teacher was strict. We loved the white
of the old man's beard. Now we can ask her
the many names of green, of blue,
and she knows them, she knows them!

Earth, school is out now. You're free
to play with the children. We'll catch you,
joyous Earth. The happiest will catch you!

All that the teacher taught her—the many thoughts
pressed now into roots and long
tough stems: she sings! She sings!

Sonnets to Orpheus I, 21

8 comments:

  1. Ah spring at last, at least for you over there in the northern hemisphere, and for us autumn or as you might say fall. The transitional seasons.

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  2. She sings! She springs!

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  3. i can all but smile. this is funny to me as this reminds me of a poet who writes now, andreas. such a light heart.

    last night, his sweater parting like a cape, the teacher entered the room again. he forgot his notes. it snowed.(

    xo
    erin

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  4. Rilke's fondness of childhood -- for that great gold ball before self -- is so effusive in The Sonnets, written just a couple of years before he died. The happiest will catch the Earth those who have followed the lyre down to its Orphic roots, discovering, there in the depths, that praising is what matters, a seasonal attitude for all seasons... - Brendan

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  5. I was, and still am, astounded by this verse, the likening of spring to a child who has been schooled.

    Earth, school is out now. You're free
    to play with the children. We'll catch you,
    joyous Earth. The happiest will catch you!


    I love it!

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  6. i know i'm a child with spring - i want to run, skip and frolic

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  7. She's playing hide-and-seek: balmy one day, snow the next. Sly, coy Earth!

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  8. I have this book, read this one on Saturday and spent the weekend memorizing it. What a beautiful poem!

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"Everything is blooming most recklessly; if it were voices instead of colors, there would be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night."

~ Rainer Maria Rilke

Go ahead, bloom recklessly!