Is it wrong for the thrush to sing?
Can the crocus keep back its bloom?
And shall not a soul that feels the Spring
Break forth from its house of gloom?
O passionate heart, be strong!
Thou wert made, like the birds and the flowers,
For music and fragrance the whole day long
In the April light and showers.
To every one it is given
To love, and to hope, and to do;
There’s never a power on the earth or in Heaven
Can throttle a soul that is true.
Lyman Whitney Allen was pastor of South Park Presbyterian Church for 27 years. Author of Newark’s official celebration ode for the 1916 commemorations, he withdrew from full-time ministry later that year to devote himself to literature. “A Spring Song” was printed in The Newarker of April 1916 and in The Newark Anniversary Poems.
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