Ode to Spring

After the hard slog of winter, spring always seems like such a hard won, well deserved treat. And, perhaps this year, all the more so after our first pandemic winter in over a 100 years.

To celebrate this lovely time of year, let us remind ourselves of the words of two Williams: William Shakespeare and William Wordsworth.

Sonnet 98

By William Shakespeare

From you have I been absent in the spring,
When proud-pied April, dressed in all his trim,
Hath put a spirit of youth in everything,
That heavy Saturn laughed and leaped with him.
Yet nor the lays of birds, nor the sweet smell
Of different flowers in odour and in hue,
Could make me any summer’s story tell,
Or from their proud lap pluck them where they grew:
Nor did I wonder at the lily’s white,
Nor praise the deep vermilion in the rose;
They were but sweet, but figures of delight
Drawn after you, – you pattern of all those.
    Yet seem’d it winter still, and, you away,
    As with your shadow I with these did play.

Lines Written in Early Spring

By William Wordsworth