Splendour in the Grass

Every year around this time, when the dry season ends and the rains begin, one beautiful site to behold in several places around the city are the blooming fire trees. Their orangeness provides a very colorful and artistic contrast to the green grass and leaves that also spring alive. It is as if the the dry ground and trees parched with thirst all summer suddenly drink their fill of refreshing water.

The orange shower on the green grass here reminds me of the title of an old movie, "Splendour in the Grass". However, unlike the sense of loss that is captured in W. Wordsworth's poem where the title of the movie came from, I only experience a cheerful, enlivening feeling when my eyes feast on the colors!

For the curious, here are some lines from the poem:

.......
Ye that pipe and ye that play,
Ye that through your hearts today
Feel the gladness of the May!
What though the radiance which was once so bright
Be now for ever taken from my sight,
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind;
........
Thanks to the human heart by which we live,
Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears,
To me the meanest flower that blows can give
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.


- Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood (1807)
William Wordsworth