Two April Holidays: Patriots' Day & Arbor Day

Dear Members, Alumni, & Friends of the JSMT:

The month of April is filled with holidays! In addition to sacred festivals that dance through different dates on the calendar each year, April also has holidays dedicated to the remembrance of historical events and to building the future. To this end, I am including poems about holidays that are both backward-looking and forward-looking in this edition of Quotemail. Emerson’s “Concord Hymn” recalls the first battles of the American Revolutionary War at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts on April 19, 1775 (which gave rise to Patriots’ Day on the third Monday of April in New England), and Kilmer’s “Trees” reminds us of the importance of arboriculture on this Arbor Day (the last Friday in April).

“Trees” (1914)

By Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918)

I think that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is pressed

Against the Earth’s sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,

And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in Summer wear

A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;

Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,

But only God can make a tree.

You can read “The Elder Tree Mother,” a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen about a dryad (the living soul of a tree) @ http://hca.gilead.org.il/li_elder.html.

“Concord Hymn” (1837)

By Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world.

The foe long since in silence slept;
Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;
And Time the ruined bridge has swept
Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.

On this green bank, by this soft stream,
We set to-day a votive stone;
That memory may their deed redeem,
When, like our sires, our sons are gone.

Spirit, that made those heroes dare,
To die, and leave their children free,
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
The shaft we raise to them and thee.

You can watch an animated music video based on this poem (Schoolhouse Rock’s “The Shot Heard Round the World”) @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6ikO6LMxF4.

Enjoy the springtime weather outside this weekend! J

Until next time –

Rob