Welcoming the Windy Month of March

Hello everyone – 

The month of March arrives today, bringing with it (we hope!) warmer weather, longer days, and March winds! This edition of Quotemail is dedicated to the month of March and its famous winds – hopefully, they will be mild spring zephyrs, bringing fair weather to the American Midwest. 😊

 

Orphic Hymn #80: “To the West Wind”

 

Sea-born, aerial, blowing from the west,

Sweet gales, who give to wearied labor rest:

Vernal and grassy, and of gentle sound,

To ships delightful, through the sea profound;

For these, impelled by you with gentle force,

Pursue with prosperous Fate their destined course.

With blameless gales regard my suppliant prayer,

Zephyrs unseen, light-winged, and formed from air.

 

“March”

By William Cullen Bryant

 

The stormy March is come at last,

With wind, and cloud, and changing skies;

I hear the rushing of the blast,

That through the snowy valley flies.

 

Ah, passing few are they who speak,

Wild stormy month! in praise of thee;

Yet, though thy winds are loud and bleak,

Thou art a welcome month to me.

 

For thou, to northern lands again,

The glad and glorious sun dost bring,

And thou hast joined the gentle train

And wears the gentle name of Spring.

 

And, in thy reign of blast and storm,

Smiles many a long, bright, sunny day,

When the changed winds are soft and warm,

And heaven puts on the blue of May.

 

Then sing aloud the gushing rills

And the full springs, from frost set free,

That, brightly leaping down the hills,

Are just set out to meet the sea.

 

The year's departing beauty hides

Of wintry storms the sullen threat;

But, in thy sternest frown abides

A look of kindly promise yet.

 

Thou brings the hope of those calm skies,

And that soft time of sunny showers,

When the wide bloom, on earth that lies,

Seems of a brighter world than ours.

 

“High Waving Heather”

By Emily Bronte

 

High waving heather 'neath stormy blasts bending,

Midnight and moonlight and bright shining stars,

Darkness and glory rejoicingly blending,

Earth rising to heaven and heaven descending,

Man's spirit away from its drear dungeon sending,

Bursting the fetters and breaking the bars.

 

All down the mountain sides wild forests lending

One mighty voice to the life-giving wind,

Rivers their banks in their jubilee rending,

Fast through the valleys a reckless course wending,

Wider and deeper their waters extending,

Leaving a desolate desert behind.

 

Shining and lowering and swelling and dying,

Changing forever from midnight to noon;

Roaring like thunder, like soft music sighing,

Shadows on shadows advancing and flying,

Lightning-bright flashes the deep gloom defying,

Coming as swiftly and fading as soon.

 

“A Calendar of Sonnets: March”

By Helen Hunt Jackson

 

Month which the warring ancients strangely styled

The month of war,--as if in their fierce ways

Were any month of peace!--in thy rough days

I find no war in Nature, though the wild

Winds clash and clang, and broken boughs are piled

As feet of writhing trees. The violets raise

Their heads without affright, without amaze,

And sleep through all the din, as sleeps a child.

And he who watches well may well discern

Sweet expectation in each living thing.

Like pregnant mother the sweet earth doth yearn;

In secret joy makes ready for the spring;

And hidden, sacred, in her breast doth bear

Annunciation lilies for the year.

 

A depiction of the prophet Zoroaster from 3^rd-century Syria (Dura Europos). The Zoroastrian New Year festival, Nowruz, takes place on the day of the spring equinox (this year, March 19^th). (Image Credit: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)

 

Editor’s Note: Starting this month, Quotemail will be distributed on the first and third Fridays of each month, thus making a total of 24 issues per annum.

 

Until next time –

Rob 😊