A common man marvels at uncommon things. A wise man marvels at the commonplace. CONFUCIUS

Wednesday 9 February 2011

Winter-Weary

Ah come, come quickly, spring!
come and lift us towards our culmination, we myriads;
we who have never flowered, like patient cactuses.
Come and lift us to our end, to blossom, bring us to our summer
we who are winter-weary in the winter of the world.

DH LAWRENCE Craving For Spring




I'm sure there's a surge of spring in the air today . . . or could it just be wishful thinking?


23 comments:

George said...

I love this quote from Lawrence. Being "winter-weary in the winter of the world" resonates with me both literally and metaphorically. I try to remember those words of Camus: "In the midst of winter, I found within me an invincible summer."

Bonnie Zieman, M.Ed. said...

It looks like a surge for you Robert - courageous, little flowers peeking out of the ground.
Here it Montreal it is still wishful thinking. We have at least 2 feet of snow on our back deck!

The Weaver of Grass said...

No Robert it is not wishful thinking - I have heard a blue tit, a robin and a blackbird today and they know much more about it than we do.

pilgrim said...

...and in my part of the world it was 33 degrees celsius today!

Regards from Cape Town!

Timecheck said...

It's in full blast here in California. Plums in full bloom as well as currants, daffodils and manzanita. Tulips not quite yet.

Grizz………… said...

If those flower pix are current and local, then I'm decidedly envious. We're probably a good four weeks away from anything in bloom.

You can't hurry seasons—only enjoy them.

Ruth said...

Winter aconite -- hope of spring! I must go see if there is any down by the river on campus yet. I wrote haiku this after seeing it many winters ago:

Faith

Faith is aconite
rising in February
warm in the snow bed.

Grace said...

Here in Nova Scotia, spring doesn't even seem like a possibility! Just piles upon piles of snow. Do enjoy looking at pictures that have the promise of spring though!

fireweed said...

I wonder if he wrote this after he had gone to live in Mexico? If so, no sympathy. We're still midst of winter here and more snow last night. Spring comes in May but all at once, which is very exhilarating. Springs in England made me crazy as they were soooo slow. It seemed to take months for all the leaves to unfurl. Here it happens in days.

Phoenix C. said...

Definitely a surge of spring up here in the North East for the last few days! There's that lovely feeling of growiness and coy exuberance.

ksam said...

Holy cow...green!! I'm still waiting for my yard to reappear! We're down to about 3 inches, but its very very cold today..and windy...so it ain't goin nowhere! Yet!

The Solitary Walker said...

Grizz - those pix of snowdrops and winter aconites are certainly current and local. They were snapped this morning in our garden!

You're so right, Fireweed - spring is a slow process in England (though rather nice it's like that, actually - it keeps up your anticipation for longer.)

Thanks everyone for all your vernal comments...

Tramp said...

The slow spring is one of the things I miss about the UK. (Marmite I can stock up on). Here in central Europe the winter lingers on and then spring is such a short affair. It seems like everything happens in a week. We have some wonderful weather this week, frosty mornings and then clear bright days. Spring is on the way but there may be one or two set backs before it arrives.
Keep looking, we are.
...Lady and Tramp

The Solitary Walker said...

Thank goodness Marmite's available to you over there, Tramp!

Anonymous said...

certainly winter weary here; thanks for the poem. I just read a wonderful description of Lawrence in Deakin's Wildwood, that I'll post soon.

Someone gave me a free sample of a Marmite cereal bar recently. Interesting!

Andy

Ruth said...

I like your new template!

The Solitary Walker said...

Loved your last couple of posts, Andy. Let's hope there'll be some wildwood left for our children to enjoy...

Thanks, Ruth! It's been long due an update and I've been tinkering around with it all day. I must admit, I'm quite pleased with it. It's simple and clear, I hope, and quite restful on the eye. The only problem is: the new template seems to have de-paragraphed quite a lot of my old posts, conflating them into huge indigestible chunks... I've redone the last 40 or so posts, but I'll have to leave the rest as I'm no Sisyphus. Don't know if anyone knows a shortcut way to fix this?

Dominic Rivron said...

Wishful thinking. Give it a couple of weeks and we'll be under 2ft of snow again. Just you wait. It always happens. Every year.

Luiza said...

Love the new template, yes it is clean and clear.

Thanks for the posting. Houston's winter is short but I am still Winter-Weary. Spring has arrived here and now we have the second three day freeze where our tropical plants turn to mush.

George said...

Let me throw in my two bits on the new format: I love it. Very appealing and easy on the eye. When I changed my format, I had to go back and make a lot of manual adjustments to previous postings. At some point, however, one has to draw a line and let it be.

The Solitary Walker said...

Thanks for your Yorkshire pessimism, Dominic (or should I say realism?)

Thanks also Luiza and George, and I'm pleased you like the new template.

More Than Meets the I said...

I love your yellow crocuses and D. H. Lawrence's use of simile: 'we who have never flowered, like patient cactuses'.
Spring is well on its way here. We've been experiencing delightful temperatures (15 C) and soft sunshine lately :D

The Solitary Walker said...

Thanks MTMTE for your comment. We could do with some of those temperatures in England. It's been a long winter over here, and it ain't over yet.