There is a strange modesty in this poem that serves its subject well. It is not grander that is evoked but something softer, something more intimate and approachable, like the English countryside itself. As a boy who grew up in a Cheshire village and appreciated the seasons, even as a child, the sudden rapturous magnificence of spring, coming after the winter, seemed to be utterly miraculous. Far from my beginnings now and unlikely ever to return, this poem evokes something of the magic of an English spring.

Dennis Rhodes Lcc

8y↑1

+Colin , Thanks Colin, really captured

Raibeart Creagh

8y↑9

My thanks too Colin, as a young lad going to England in the Summer holidays (though not Spring) will always be with me. Couldn't afford the train down from Glasgow and those days few working folk owned a car to make the journey. It was in the sixties and England was the centre of the universe politically, culturally, it was modern and full of antiquities at the same time! The Beatles, pop music that was and remains the best in the World (music from then I hasten to add).

The holidays for me began when I was about 5 (1962) through until when I was 11 ... Getting off the Western bus after a long and arduous journey to Victoria bust station we invariably got there early morning. Even the smell of fresh air (yes central London) mixed with diesel and roasted gearbox oil meant the world to me. After that getting on the green Southern bus to Brighton, and gently getting our way through a quiet city, the outskirts and down the A23 and then over the downs .... Sun shinning until, .......

Joe Black

The best reading I've heard. Too many others just hurry through it, without much feeling or understanding of the words. Then again, Geoffrey Palmer was a lover of the English countryside.

Jared Hendricks Inglés

11y↑2

Wow, so peaceful!

WJ darasz

Bardzo dobry wiersz, choć trochę nostalgiczny.

Jon Collins

3y↑1

Amazing poem and so well read!!

Cotictimmy

2y↑2

Led here by the beautiful Clifford T Ward song inspired by this poem. If you don't already know it, then why not make the reverse journey & check it out?