Charlotte Purkiss ‘29
Staff Writer
As of Friday, March 20th it is now spring! Although the weather this last week may not mirror traditional spring whether there is hope for the weeks ahead. This time of year comes with a wonderful range of emotions like happiness and hope. Thursday April 2nd, marked the end of lent – a 40 day Christian fasting and reflection period leading up to Easter. It ends on Holy Thursday and acts as a parallel to Christ’s sacrifices and all he gave up. Then, we have Easter Sunday, a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus and his ascent into heaven. Easter represents hope for current struggles. In a religious sense, springtime and Easter both symbolize victory over darkness and new beginnings. Things begin to come back to life after being dead all winter and show us that growth is not only possible but it is coming. This marks a reset, signaling the end of the cold days into the longer warm ones. The warmer weather encourages people to spend more time outside, the sun makes us happier and we get vitamin C while reconnecting with nature after spending lots of our winter staying warm inside.
One of my favorite spring time poems is “Spring” by Mary Oliver. In this poem she celebrities the arrival of spring by focusing on the imagery of nature. Her poem is quite fitting right now because of the chilly weather we have been dealing with. She captures the beauty of spring and hope despite the cold.
“And here is the serpent again,
dragging himself out from his nest of darkness,
his cave under the dark rocks,
his winter-death.
He slides over the pine needles.
He loops around the branches of rising grass,
looking for the sun.
Well who doesn’t want the sun after a long winter?
I step aside,
he feels the air with his soft tongue,
around the bones of his body he moves like oil.
downhill he goes
toward the black mirrors of the pond.
Last night it was still so cold
I woke and went out to stand in the yard,
and there was no moon.
So I just stood there inside the jaw of nothing.
An owl cried in the distance,
I thought of Jesus, how he
crouched in the dark for two nights,
and floated back above the horizon.”
– Mary Oliver “Spring” April, 1990
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