the archivist March 24, 2024
purple crocus flowers in bloom during daytime

VERNAL SENTIMENT.
Theodore Roethke

Though the crocuses poke up their heads in the usual places,
The frog scum appear on the pond with the same froth of green,
And boys moon at girls with last year’s fatuous faces,
I never am bored, however familiar the scene.

When from under the barn the cat brings a similar litter,—
Two yellow and black, and one that looks in between,—
Though it all happened before, I cannot grow bitter:
I rejoice in the spring, as though no spring ever had been.

From OPEN HOUSE [1941], later included in The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke.

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