Spring is in the Valley, sap and budding time,
A thousand voices rally into sheer, clear rhyme;
Swallows are a-wheeling, robins chant in glee,
Nature all a-reeling in her glad, mad spree.
And itching's in the foot o' me to up and be away,
But I must earn my mulligan and twenty cents a day.
The snows of Coquihalla adown the pass are hurled
With thunder of Valhalla from the old, bold world;
Pipings from the river, stirring in the grass,
All my heart a-quiver as the grey geese pass.
And older than the heart o' me the urge upon me then!
But freedom's for the furtive folk, and not for sons of men.
Bluebirds softly crooning 'neath the mountain ledge,
Peeper-frogs are tuning in the rank, dank sedge;
Chirpers in the pasture, meadow-larks above
Trilling songs of rapture and of fleet, sweet love.
They're singing of another spring, and other love to me;
But girls forget the sweetheart who must live on charity.
Whispers in the bracken, rabbits are at play;
Mountain shadows slacken every new noon-day,
Summer will be on me, before the spring imparts
Pulsings of her ecstacy to young strong hearts.
There's laughter on the beaches where youth and freedom play,
But I'm a slave to mulligan and twenty cents a day.
Notes
7. "The snows of Coquihalla...": Coquihalla is in the interior of British Columbia, Canada.
'The Coquihalla Highway passes through some of the most beautiful landscapes in the province. This dramatic change of environment is always exhilarating, as you go from misty coastal cedars and tall firs to bright sunlight on the high rock faces in the space of half an hour.
This highway offers more than magnificent scenery. It joins the Hope-Princeton and Fraser Canyon to make the interior more easily accessible. This helps encourage commercial development and tourism throughout the Province.
First explored by the Hudson's Bay Company, the Coquihalla Pass saw a progression of trappers, hunters, fur traders; and, in the late 1850's, prospectors entered the area in search of gold.
Now, with touring and commercial drivers discovering this fast route through the interior, the area's future has never looked brighter.' - www.bchighway.com/coqrates
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