(After Rilke) <br /> <br /> <br />Spring has returned! Everything has returned! <br />The earth, just like a schoolgirl, memorizes <br />Poems, so many poems. ... Look, she has learned <br />So many famous poems, she has earned so many prizes! <br /> <br />Teacher was strict. We delighted in the white <br />Of the old man's beard, bright like the snow's: <br />Now we may ask which names are wrong, or right <br />For "blue," for "apple," for "ripe." She knows, she knows! <br /> <br />Lucky earth, let out of school, now you must play <br />Hide-and-seek with all the children every day: <br />You must hide that we may seek you: we will! We will! <br /> <br />The happiest child will hold you. She knows all the things <br />You taught her: the word for "hope," and for "believe," <br />Are still upon her tongue. She sings and sings and sings.<br /><br />Delmore Schwartz<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-spring/
