What the Bird Said Early In The Year

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.

- C.S. Lewis

I first saw this poem on a plaque at Magdalen College, Oxford:


(An old scan from an old camera.)

I don't think Mr. Lewis had the Cubs in mind when he wrote this (but he could have! - it's been that long...),
but I thought of this tonight, going into game 5. This Chicago beer is what I was drinking at the
time, and happened to be listening to a song called "Time for Miracles."

The beer on the left has not been made for years; the one on the right is (sort of)
its reincarnation, featuring a phoenix.