Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

May, a parody of real Spring

Two poems by James Russell Lowell

James Russell Lowell
James Russell Lowell

Under the Willows

  • May is a pious fraud of the almanac.
  • A ghastly parody of real Spring
  • Shaped out of snow and breathed with eastern wind;
  • Or if, o’er-confident, she trust the date,
  • And, with her handful of anemones,
  • Herself as shivery, steal into the sun,
  • The season need but turn his hour-glass round,
  • And Winter suddenly, like crazy Lear,
  • Reels back, and brings the dead May in his arms,
  • Her budding breasts and wan dislustred front
  • With frosty streaks and drifts of his white beard
  • All overblown. Then, warmly walled with books,
  • While my wood-fire supplies the sun’s defect,
  • Whispering old forest-sagas in its dreams,
  • I take my May down from the happy shelf
  • Where perch the world’s rare song-birds in a row,
  • Waiting my choice to upen with full breast,
  • And beg an alms of springtime, ne’er denied
  • Indoors by vernal Chaucer, whose fresh woods
  • Throb thick with merle and mavis all the years.

Green Mountains

  • Ye mountains, that far off lift up your heads,
  • Seen dimly through their canopies of blue,
  • The shade of my unrestful spirit sheds
  • Distance-created beauty over you;
  • I am not well content with this far view;
  • How may I know what foot of loved-one treads
  • Your rocks moss-grown and sun-dried torrent beds?
  • We should love all things better, if we knew
  • What claims the meanest have upon our hearts:
  • Perchance even now some eye, that would be bright
  • To meet my own, looks on your mist-robed forms;
  • Perchance your grandeur a deep joy imparts
  • To souls that have encircled mine with light —
  • O brother-heart, with thee my spirit warms!

James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) was an American poet, critic, editor, and general all-around Romantic associated with the “Fireside Poets,” which included other luminaries of New England verse: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, William Cullen Bryant, John Greenleaf Whittier, and Oliver Wendell Holmes (and which only required for membership, apparently, the possession of a tremendously conspicuous middle name). Among Lowell’s descendants were the two 20th-century American poets Amy Lowell (1874–1925) and Robert Lowell (1917–1977) and virtually half the population of eastern Massachusetts.

Sponsored
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

OSHA rules wall falls our fault

Who, U.S.?
Next Article

Didja know I did the first American feature on Jimi Hendrix?

Richard Meltzer goes through the Germs, Blue Oyster Cult, Ray Charles, Elvis, Lavender Hill Mob
James Russell Lowell
James Russell Lowell

Under the Willows

  • May is a pious fraud of the almanac.
  • A ghastly parody of real Spring
  • Shaped out of snow and breathed with eastern wind;
  • Or if, o’er-confident, she trust the date,
  • And, with her handful of anemones,
  • Herself as shivery, steal into the sun,
  • The season need but turn his hour-glass round,
  • And Winter suddenly, like crazy Lear,
  • Reels back, and brings the dead May in his arms,
  • Her budding breasts and wan dislustred front
  • With frosty streaks and drifts of his white beard
  • All overblown. Then, warmly walled with books,
  • While my wood-fire supplies the sun’s defect,
  • Whispering old forest-sagas in its dreams,
  • I take my May down from the happy shelf
  • Where perch the world’s rare song-birds in a row,
  • Waiting my choice to upen with full breast,
  • And beg an alms of springtime, ne’er denied
  • Indoors by vernal Chaucer, whose fresh woods
  • Throb thick with merle and mavis all the years.

Green Mountains

  • Ye mountains, that far off lift up your heads,
  • Seen dimly through their canopies of blue,
  • The shade of my unrestful spirit sheds
  • Distance-created beauty over you;
  • I am not well content with this far view;
  • How may I know what foot of loved-one treads
  • Your rocks moss-grown and sun-dried torrent beds?
  • We should love all things better, if we knew
  • What claims the meanest have upon our hearts:
  • Perchance even now some eye, that would be bright
  • To meet my own, looks on your mist-robed forms;
  • Perchance your grandeur a deep joy imparts
  • To souls that have encircled mine with light —
  • O brother-heart, with thee my spirit warms!

James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) was an American poet, critic, editor, and general all-around Romantic associated with the “Fireside Poets,” which included other luminaries of New England verse: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, William Cullen Bryant, John Greenleaf Whittier, and Oliver Wendell Holmes (and which only required for membership, apparently, the possession of a tremendously conspicuous middle name). Among Lowell’s descendants were the two 20th-century American poets Amy Lowell (1874–1925) and Robert Lowell (1917–1977) and virtually half the population of eastern Massachusetts.

Sponsored
Sponsored
Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Nation’s sexy soldiers stage protest at Pendleton in wake of change in Marine uniform policy

Semper WHY?
Next Article

Gonzo Report: Half Hour Late lives up to their name at the Template

Deadhead-inflected band right at home in Ocean Beach
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.