Monday, November 4, 2013

The Fifth Annual Great Genealogy Poetry Challenge

This poem is submitted for Bill West’s Fifth Annual Great Genealogy Poetry Challenge.  
You can read all about it at this page:

Bertha Louise (Roberts) Wilkinson
1897 - 1990
My grandmother, Bertha Louise Roberts, came to Massachusetts from Yorkshire, England in 1915. She married my grandfather, Donald Munroe Wilkinson, in Beverly, Massachusetts in 1925.  In England, she trained to be a children’s nurse (a Nanny) when she was only twelve years old. She was always a terrific story teller, and could recite dozens of poems.  She dreamed of writing poetry and being a poet.  I've submitted some of her other poems here for previous Genealogy Poetry Challenges.

I think that the New England weather always surprised Grammy.  It was not as mild and as predictable as the weather in England. Many of her poems are about weather, seasons, and nature.  The one I transcribed below is a poem she would often recite to me when I was a little girl. The last line makes me think that she was happy to have become a U.S. citizen.




Spring Time
By Bertha Roberts Wilkinson

Old man winter with a sigh
                Knew that he must say good bye
Miss Spring softly enters in
                Now the pleasant days begin

Windy March with huff and puff
                Miss Spring calls “Now, that’s enough!”
Gentler days will soon be here
                For it’s that time of the year

A little snow is still around
                But the little crocus can be found
Their little faces bravely raise
                To the sunshine’s warmer rays

Now that Spring is here one sees
                Green leaves growing on the trees
Nature busy waking up
                Daisies and the buttercup

Birds are singing far and near
                Songs for everyone to hear
Tulips in their bright array
                Gently on their stems will sway

We see children at their play
                Outdoors now most every day
Roller skates and bouncing ball
                Jumping, skipping, growing tall

Thank Heavenly Father for the spring
                For loving parents and everything
For mountains, valleys, skies so blue
                And for this Country, we thank thee, too.


Please click here to read more of Bertha’s poetry:


Copyright 2013, Heather Wilkinson Rojo


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