The following is a poem written by my great grandmother, Virginia (Jenny) Coate Harper. I thought it was very fitting for this beautiful Midwestern spring day.
SPRING AGAIN
Happy springtime’s here again,
The gladdest of the year.
The birds are singing in the trees
To fill our hearts with cheer.
There’s violets blooming in the dell
Where bunny rabbits play,
And bees are droning round the trees
Mid apple blossoms gay.
The daffodils and tulip bright
Begins a gorgeous race,
While lilac, rose, and columbine
Will vie for scent and grace.
The turtledove coos to its mate
As their nest they have just begun
While mother hen and baby chicks
Are basking in the sun.
Long furrows top of fresh plowed soil
Stretch far across the field,
A symbol of the thoughts and plans
For crops this earth will yield.
At signs of putting forth new life
Some happy thoughts must cling
For birds, and beast and all mankind
Must love the happy spring.
Jenny was born on
21 Mar 1874 to Calvin W. and Candace (Coppock) Coate. She married Elbert S. Harper on 22 Dec 1902. Jenny died on 28 Sep 1950. Much of her poetry was discovered years after her death, mixed among personal papers and possessions. Many of these poems were written on the backs of used envelopes, old letters, or scraps of paper. In the 1990’s, Jenny’s granddaughter, Betty, self-published a small collections of Jenny’s poetry to preserve it for future generations.[1]
[1] Schwartman, Betty (Taylor) Smith, Ed., Jenny: A Portrait in Poetry. 199?, self-published.
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