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Tuesday
I’m assuming that spring begins early this year–on March 19–because of Leap Year. Here’s a joyous celebration of the season by the 16th century Elizabethan poet Thomas Nashe (1567-1601). The birds he invokes are the cuckoo, the nightingale, the lapwing, and the owl.
Spring, the Sweet Spring
By Thomas Nashe
Spring, the sweet spring, is the year’s pleasant king,
Then blooms each thing, then maids dance in a ring,
Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing:
Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo!
The palm and may make country houses gay,
Lambs frisk and play, the shepherds pipe all day,
And we hear aye birds tune this merry lay:
Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo!
The fields breathe sweet, the daisies kiss our feet,
Young lovers meet, old wives a-sunning sit,
In every street these tunes our ears do greet:
Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to witta-woo!
Spring, the sweet spring!