SPRING SEASON
Ode to spring…
Seasons of mist and mellow fruitfulness are left behind and long over as they make way for the lovely and lively spring
Deepa Gupta
Bidding a cold farewell to winter, spring glides with its warmth and vibrance into the homes and hearts of men, women and children across the world.
When winter lifts a little bit
And spring peeks through the crack…., we know it has arrived.
The very season that comes with its own charm and simplicity embraces the earth in a subtle yellow across fields and rivers and casts a spell on poets, writers, lovers and the like. It weaves magic with song, dance, music and melody and fills every heart with untouched joy and happiness. Spring fills up the senses with everything pleasant –
For lovely, lovely, colored smells
That come in springtime only…
Celebrated in our country as the pulsating fest of Basant Panchami, on the fifth day of the Indian month Magh that falls between January and February, it heralds the beginning of new life, respite from the bitter cold and is a mark of the age-old customs and traditions associated with it. Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge, music and art is worshipped and so is Kamadev, the god of love in Hindu mythology. The color yellow predominates be it the decorations, clothes or food. Goddess Saraswati believed to have blessed people with the ability to compose poetry is much revered and paid obeisance on this auspicious occasion. The Goddess of wisdom and learning, Saraswati, gives the essence (sara) of our own self (swa) to each of us as she plays the music of love and life on the veena.
While spring or Basant is a season of rejoicing in India, it is the time of the year that has stirred the emotions of poets’ world over and driven them to create verses on every little aspect of this wonderful celebration of love, life and romance. From Shakespeare to D H Lawrence to the present day writers, they have all rejoiced in spring and sang of its wonders and marvels. So while Shakespeare wrote in a Song from Love’s Labors Lost -
When daisies pied, and violets blue,
And lady-smocks all silver-white,
And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue
Do paint the meadows with delight…
Thomas Nashe penned -
Spring, the sweet spring, is the year’s pleasant king…
The fields breathe sweet, the daisies kiss our feet,
Young lovers meet….
The poets celebrated the passing of winter and its woes as Thomas Carew in ‘The Spring’ sings -
Now that the winter’s gone, the earth hath lost
Her snow-white robes….
But the warm sun thaws the benumbed earth,
Now do a choir of chirping minstrels bring,
In triumph to the world, the youthful spring…
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Robert Herrick coaxes men and women -
Rise and put on your foliage, and be seen
To come forth, like the spring-time, fresh and green,
And sweet as Flora…
And so does William Blake sing in praise of spring uttering a craving that comes rare for a season -
….all our longing eyes are turn’d
Up to thy bright pavilions: issue forth
And let thy holy feet visit our clime!
William Wordsworth in ‘Lines Written in Early Spring’ proclaims —
I heard a thousand blended notes,
While in a grove I sate reclined,
In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts
Bring sad thoughts to the mind.
Christina Rossetti calls upon spring quietly while Emily Dickinson recalls —
A Light exists in Spring
Robert Frost and D H Lawrence enkindle spring with -
Wild puffing of emerald trees, and flame-filled bushes,
Thorn-blossom lifting in wreaths of smoke between
Where the wood fumes up and the watery, flickering rushes…
Robert Louis Stevenson in his ‘Spring Carol’ lends it a godly splendor -
So when the earth is alive with gods…
And the grass sings in the meadows,
And the flowers smile in the shadows…
And Gerard Manley Hopkins simply states —
Nothing is so beautiful as spring —
And it isn’t we alone who pull the strings at kite flying very much a part of Basant Panchami; Robert McCracken writes -
Today is the day when bold kites fly,
When cumulus clouds roar across the sky.
When robins return, when children cheer,
When light rain beckons spring to appear.
The world indeed harbors similar feelings that resonate with every season. To spring it is…then…
