Classic and Contemporary Poetry
SPRING IN THE PARK, by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON Poet's Biography First Line: This day of april ardors, a careless passerby Last Line: Blossomed and blessed the hour, redeemed the town. Subject(s): April; Beauty; Happiness; Japan; Parks; Peace; Spring; Joy; Delight; Japanese | ||||||||
THIS day of April ardors, a careless passerby, I stepped for a moment aside from the city street, Into the Park, where winding walks And cunning contours of earth, with the fresh earth smell And the gleam and glance of pools that wait a swan, And writhen trees on rising mounds wherein Rest the quaint Pagodas, -- all make a dream Little and dear, from far Japan; Right in the midst of roaring, keen New York, Roaring with trade, keen in the dollar hunt. There I sat me down, Glad to be free, glad to be told once more That Beauty lives, near by, and ever calls Lute-clear, if one will only harken and hear. Then, as I sat and mused and drank it in, Of a sudden, all the peering, great-eyed buildings Lining the Park by east and west and south, A-stare, innumerous, primly intent on business, I saw were looking down into the Park, Their barter quite forgotten, out of a myriad eyes, Tranced by this little Japanese dream of Beauty, And, lo, they spoke and said: "Oh, careless passer-by, Ours is not the lust of gain nor housing of folk, Not these alone; Nor chaffer on 'Change as the shouldering crowds go by. We see you down there midst the tended ways, The pretty shrubs and serpentining walks, With the wood-sweet Pagodas topping the tiny hills, -- And we yearn, O God, how we yearn (Regarding you there, a careless passer-by, Out of our gaunt, world-weary eyes, Aware of the sun-soaked bliss athrob in your blood). "For we, too, yearn for Beauty, and in a trance Solemn, unwinking, we gaze and gaze Out of our sentinel orbs, and silently Send you a brother-word this day, when spring Moves in ecstasy, and the exquisite sky Softens the discolored town, and binds together Into a sacred unison earth and heaven, And fills a heart long drained of dizzy joy. . . . "Yes, we are with you, of you, all our eyes See only yonder little tender dream Of rock and swan and sky and sweet snatches of water -- Message from overseas of an artist folk To the big, bluff splendid land, lest it forget Beauty, nor hold her holy, meek in her shrine." So the buildings spoke, when I, a careless passerby, Stepped for a moment aside from the choked swift street Into a charmed demesne of Peace and Joy, Where city noises lessened to sounds more like The twitter and chirp of birds; While over all, far up, a sky of early spring (Deep blue swooned to a paler opaline tint) Blossomed and blessed the hour, redeemed the town. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CHOMEI AT TOYAMA by BASIL BUNTING SONG: SO OFTEN, SO LONG I HAVE THOUGHT by HAYDEN CARRUTH A MONTH IN SUMMER by CAROLYN KIZER TWO JAPANESE POEMS by WILLIAM MEREDITH KEEP DRIVING by NAOMI SHIHAB NYE WATERLILIES AND JAPANESE BRIDGE by ALICIA SUSKIN OSTRIKER A WALKAROUND, FOR NEKO; KAMAKURA 11/10/96 by JEROME ROTHENBERG AT TSUKIJI MARKET TOKYO: 1 by JEROME ROTHENBERG BLACK SHEEP by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON |
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