Thou Answerest Them Only With Spring

Simon and Garfunkel: Scarborough Fair
(Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme)

O sweet spontaneous
earth how often have
the
doting
fingers of
purient philosophers pinched
and
poked
thee
,has the naughty thumb
of science prodded
thy
beauty .how
oftn have religions taken
thee upon their scraggy knees
squeezing and
buffeting thee

that thou
mightest conceive
gods
(but
true
to the incomparable
couch of death thy
rhythmic
lover
thou answerest
them only with
spring)

--e.e. cummings
O sweet spontaneous