<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="color: rgb(29, 6, 8);" class="">The Spring</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(29, 6, 8); min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(29, 6, 8);" class=""><font size="3" class=""><i class="">(After Rilke)</i></font></div><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""> </p><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(29, 6, 8);" class="">Spring has returned! Everything has returned!</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(29, 6, 8);" class="">The earth, just like a schoolgirl, memorizes</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(29, 6, 8);" class="">Poems, so many poems. ... Look, she has learned</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(29, 6, 8);" class="">So many famous poems, she has earned so many prizes!</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(29, 6, 8);" class="">Teacher was strict. We delighted in the white</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(29, 6, 8);" class="">Of the old man's beard, bright like the snow's:</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(29, 6, 8);" class="">Now we may ask which names are wrong, or right</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(29, 6, 8);" class="">For "blue," for "apple," for "ripe." She knows, she knows!</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(29, 6, 8);" class="">Lucky earth, let out of school, now you must play</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(29, 6, 8);" class="">Hide-and-seek with all the children every day:</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(29, 6, 8);" class="">You must hide that we may seek you: we will! We will!</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(29, 6, 8);" class="">The happiest child will hold you. She knows all the things</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(29, 6, 8);" class="">You taught her: the word for "hope," and for "believe,"</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(29, 6, 8);" class="">Are still upon her tongue. She sings and sings and sings.</div><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""> </p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""> </p><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(29, 6, 8);" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Delmore Schwartz</div></body></html>