Men are April when they woo,
December when they wed.
Maids are May when they are maids,
but the sky changes when they are wives.
William Shakespeare
“In the Spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.”
Alfred Tennyson
(sweetgum tree with a traveling minstral perched high above / Julie Cook / 2018)
I heard it long before I saw it.
Loud yet sweetly melodic.
I scanned the area.
Surely it was close…but as I followed the harmonious calls,
my eyes carried me out toward the backfield meadow then high atop a sweetgum tree.
And there they sat…or more aptly put, swayed gently in the afternoon breeze,
balancing ever just so at the very top of the tender tip-top branch of the sweet gum tree.
Uncertain as to whom I was exactly listening to serenading his love, I grabbed my camera
in order to zoom in to identify this lofty crooner.
And low and behold, it was my resident mockingbird…singing ever so sweetly, ever so tenderly,
ever so joyously to the young lady of his fancy who just so happened to be sitting on
a nearby branch.
Ode to a young man bird and his fancy of love…
sadly, she flew away…
The Young Man’s Song
W. B. Yeats, 1865 – 1939
I whispered, “I am too young,”
And then, “I am old enough”;
Wherefore I threw a penny
To find out if I might love.
“Go and love, go and love, young man,
If the lady be young and fair,”
Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny,
I am looped in the loops of her hair.
Oh, love is the crooked thing,
There is nobody wise enough
To find out all that is in it,
For he would be thinking of love
Till the stars had run away,
And the shadows eaten the moon.
Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny,
One cannot begin it too soon.
Sounds like another song thing to me. I’d say that you have spring fever😍
He was so loud. It sounded as if he was right at the back deck— but he wasn’t — he was looking for love in too many places 😜
And yet another song. I highly suggest checking that out.
I can’t help it…I’m surrounded obviously by singing…and it’s not in my head :)…well, maybe some is….hahahahahaha
I hear singing, but there’s no one there,
I smell blossoms, but the trees are bare,
All day long I see to walk on air,
I wonder why. I wonder why.
I see its contagious 😉
Long distance contagion. Hahaha
😍
Reblogged this on Talmidimblogging.
Amazing photos, dear Julie!! And then, your thoughts? Extraordinary! You have the soul of a poet, that’s certain! Love this post! ❤ ❤
Just beautiful Julie!
thanks Tricia—but what was really beautiful, of which I could not capture and share here, was his song…
Cool bird but hate sweet gum trees
thanks Wally—I’m not much of a fan either—more like a trash tree…there’s and old line where a pasture fence once ran on the backside of our porperty and there’s a row of sweetgums running what use to be the line…
Too many things, mostly windows and siding has been injured by those projectiles hurled by mowers LOL. Wasn’t it this weekend Autumn came down? How were things?
well, I cried so hard when they left, Gregory felt so sorry for me that we got in the truck and took off toward middle Georgia so I could buy some, fresh off the tree, peaches.
Diversion is good for a boken heart—and maybe flying projecitles from a sweetgum tree 🙂