Hey, old world, old lazy-bones, wake to the Springtune! The music of the spheres is quickened to a jig -- Wobble a one-step along your flashing orbit, with the moon for your light- tripping partner! Shove your staid bonnet over your ear, proper old lady, And sway along the streets, tipsy with the Spring! Here are the young men, gay in their festive lids, Carolling vigorously the joy within them! What matter if the tune slide up and down? Spring is alive, and the maidens tremble to you, as you to them. I thrill with it too -- I long to hie me to His Honor the Mayor, And slap him vigorously on the back, disturbing the proper set of his derby, And shout, Wake up, old chap, it's Spring -- Let the solemn judge shrug off the ermine, and join the revellers! Let the pompous financier sing a naughty trio with his wife and the placid chauffeur! And this to the Police Commissioner -- Furnish the foremost pair of your marching guardians of the peace with mandolins and guitars, And let the ranks behind decorously do the toe dance. Oh, the quickening of the world! The push of the agile leaves, the fluttering mating of birds, The delicious unquiet of the love-hungry earth! The awakening spirit is everywhere; Nothing escapes; nothing can resist dancing to its absurd and delightful melody. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THAT SUCH HAVE DIED by EMILY DICKINSON EPITAPHS OF THE WAR, 1914-18: THE BEGINNER by RUDYARD KIPLING AN ESSAY ON MAN by ALEXANDER POPE THE LAST SUPPER by RAINER MARIA RILKE THE LAKE ISLE OF INNISFREE by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS THE WANING MOON by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT |