When Spring Has Come

I don’t consult no almanacs

     To find when spring has come;

I don’t consult no daily press

     Nor weather men, I mum!

I’ve got a surer way than that,

     An’ got it right down fine;

They is an echo to its call

     Right in this soul of mine.

No man kin figger out the date

     Exactly, seems to me;

It all depends upon yourself,

     An’ natur’, don’t you see.

When spring appears in earth an’ sky,

     An’ looks with eyes divine,

They is an echo to her smile

     Right in this soul of mine.

She tells it though the whisp’ring winds,

     An’ through the wak’nin’ trees;

She tells it through the songs of birds,

     An’ stir the drowsy bees.

I want to read no printed page,

     No scientific signs;

When spring is here she wakes a song

     Right in this soul of mine.

March 11, 1910