What the Bird Said Early In The Year

(by C.S. Lewis)

I heard in Addison’s Walk a bird sing clear

'This year the summer will come true. This year. This year.

'Winds will not strip the blossom from the apple trees


This year nor want of rain destroy the peas.

'This year time’s nature will no more defeat you.


Nor all the promised moments in their passing cheat you.

'This time they will not lead you round and back


To Autumn, one year older, by the well worn track.

'This year, this year, as all these flowers foretell,


We shall escape the circle and undo the spell.

'Often deceived, yet open once again your heart,


Quick, quick, quick, quick! – the gates are drawn apart.'

"If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing." - Lewis, Mere Christianity