This is Bird Note.

In the environmental movement, no single figure stands taller than Rachel Carson.

Her work on DDT helped spark an environmental awakening in the 1960s.

Some consider Rachel Carson the finest nature writer of the 20th century.

In addition to Silent Spring, books such as the sea around us and

under the sea wind are evidence of her exquisite literary talent. Carson herself had inspiration

from a 19th century writer named Richard Jeffreys. His prose poems like The Pagion of Summer

reveal a profound immersion in nature and a joyful sense of discovery.

His work helped Carson develop and write about her own deep sense of connection with the natural world.

Here's Jeffreys on Summer.

Every blade of grass, each leaf, each separate floret and petal, is an inscription speaking of hope.

Consider the grasses and the oaks, the swallows, the sweet blue butterfly.

They are one and all a sign and token, showing before our eyes earth made into life.

So that my hope becomes as broad as the horizon afar, reiterated by every leaf, sung on every bow, reflected in the gleam of

every flower. For Bird Note, I'm Mary McCann. Bird Note's newsletter delivers the wonder and joy of birds directly to your inbox.

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