Spring is sprung, the grass is riz

Every year about this time, a little jingle comes to my mind, but it doesn’t come in completely. I sure wish that when a thought pops into my head and takes up residence there, it would at least be a complete thought, not just the beginning of a thought that I don’t know how to finish. Things like this can keep a girl awake at night! Such is this one that has been a bother to me frequently.

Generally about this time in our trip around the sun, I hear these words in my head: “Spring is sprung, the grass is riz” And then it stops. Now, I know full well there’s more to it than that, and it’s “something something something is.”

So I end up taking a couple of stabs at it myself, such as, “Spring is sprung, the grass is riz; the elevator’s where the vultures is.” Well, that kind of works, and the turkey vultures have returned, so it must be spring. But I don’t think that’s how it goes. So I try another: “Spring is sprung, the grass is riz; my favorite spring flower the daffodil is.” Nah, that’s not it either, but it could be considered the start to another verse!

Finally, I get smart and consult the internet; that’s where all the knowledge is. (Say, there’s another line in rhyme!)

And sure ‘nuf, in just a few keystrokes I have the official answer:

Spring is sprung, the grass is riz;

I wonder where the boidies is?

They say the boid’s on the wing.

But that’s absurd, the wing’s on the boid!

Seriously? That’s supposed to be the rest of the jingle that has plagued me for years? I don’t know if I buy into it.

But while I’m wondering, I think of another spring poem that I recall only a part of. The line is “God’s in His heaven—All’s right with the world!” I know it is part of something else, so a quick search on the internet shows me the entire poem, from Pippa’s Song in “Pippa Passes,” by Robert Browning:

The year’s at the spring and day’s at the morn;

Morning’s at seven, the hillside’s dew-pearled;

The larks on the wing, the snail’s on the thorn;

God’s in His heaven — All’s right with the world!

Happily, the year IS at the spring, and after our plenttiful rains, everything is going to grow like weeds (they will, too!). As soon as we get some sunny days, the grass will get greener and taller by the day, the forsythia, lilacs and other flowering shrubs will pop into full bloom, leaves on the trees will burst forth and begin their shady business. Soon there will be a buzzing of lawn mowers and bees. I am so ready!

And how do we know this will in fact occur? Because God’s in His heaven — All’s right with the world!