Setting aside her poems about war, slavery, work, and spirituality for this morning, here’s an except from one of Lucy Larcom’s many poems about the environment. This poem is from “The Poetical Works of Lucy Larcom, Household Edition” (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, & Co., 1885). About her poems, her friend John G. Whittier wrote: “She holds in rare combination the heathfulness of simple truth and common sense, with a fine and delicate fancy and an artist’s perception of all beauty. Wholly without cant, affectation, or imitation, the moral tone of the more serious poems is noteworthy. The religious sentiment of New England never had a more winning and graceful interpreter; for she has succeeded in reconciling Puritanism with the liberal yet reverent spirit of modern inquiry. Her ballads have the true flavor and feeling of the breezy New England sea-coast.”—PM

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from March

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March! March! March! They will hurry

Forth at the wild bugle-sound;

Blossoms and birds in a flurry,

Fluttering all over the ground.

Hang out your flags, birch and willow!

Shake out your red tassels, larch!

Up, blades of grass, from your pillow!

Hear who is calling you — March!

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—Lucy Larcom