Nora Perry (1831-1896)
Born in Dudley, MA, Perry was a popular and respected poet, children’s story writer and reporter for the Chicago Tribune and Providence Journal. Her jubilant, flowing style reminds me of cascading waters flowing down a New England waterfall:
“There’s something in the air
That’s new and sweet and rare –
A scent of summer things,
A whir as if of wings.”
- From the Coming Spring (Journal of Education, 1905)
Her book of poetry, New Songs and Ballads (1887) contains many wonderful examples of her playful, fable-like poetry. From this book, I’ve chosen “The Secrets of the Spring.”
“The Secrets of the Spring”
Come out and listen, listen low,
And hear the grasses as they grow,
And list the little winds that blow,
And learn to read their secret well, -
The secret that they softly tell
To bird and bee in drowsy dell,
Of bloomy banks that are to be,
Of fragrant field and leafy tree,
And all the summer mystery
Of bud and blossom, flower and fruit,
That quickens now in sap and root,
And now in tender springing shoot.
Come out, come out, the days are long,
But Nature sings her secret song
In secret ways, - the days are long;
But swift as sweet from day to day,
From hour to hour, the tuneful lay
Runs headlong on a changeful way.
Come out, then, in the early glow
Of early springtime's bud and blow, -
Come out and hear the grasses grow,
And all the secrets of the spring
That melt and murmur, speak and sing,
To ears attuned to listening.