Spring

The poem never states the speaker's name. However, it can be safe to interpret Millay as the poem's speaker. Millay identified during college as a pacifist, a person with anti-war beliefs (“Edna St. Vincent Millay.” Vassar College Encyclopedia, Vassar College, 2006), and she wrote the poem around 1920, only two years after the First World War's end in 1918 (“Vincent Millay Reads Her Poems“). The mass loss of life from the War traumatized entire generations, which fostered a culture of cynicism and mourning. Since the poem deals with the speaker's grief-driven cynicism, readers can easily spot Millay's personal beliefs and cultural experiences in the speaker.

Millay investigates life and time as a contradiction of change, stagnation, growth, and inevitability with a sarcastic wit in “Spring.” Millay places time's progression at the poem's center by remarking upon April's return in the first line. While the speaker enjoyed the month's beauty in the past, it will no longer give her a sense of peace or distract her from her knowledge.

Millay signals to the reader that the speaker endured a profound shift in perspective. Why question April's reason for returning now? The question makes sense if the speaker recently learned something that impacted her view on April's presence and impact.

The speaker becomes defiant toward April, displaying her distrust and wisdom. “Beauty is not enough,” she declares, “You can no longer quiet me with” flowers in bloom (Lines 2-3). Her statement, “no longer quiet me,” hints that, previously, April had successfully placated and distracted her with its colorful displays (Line 3). However, she now views its attempt as pitiful. Her descriptions of the “little leaves” as sticky and red make the flower seem pathetic, off-putting, and disgusting (Lines 3-4). She then reveals she knows the truth about April. Her previous sentiments make the now implicit at the end.

The speaker admits that April successfully makes nature warm and beautiful. However, the month's tranquility makes death seem non-existent, making death's inevitability more noticeable. She transitions from the earth's good smell to bodies buried in the soil. April's cyclical return and the birth happening above ground hide an inevitable endpoint. People rot. Their brains once held their memories, skills, and personalities but now they feed the abundance of the spring.

April's celebratory beauty now seems callous and performative. The month's presence reminds the speaker that life eventually ends. As time progresses, she gets closer to death despite April's false promises of rebirth. The dead remain dead, static.

April's return cannot distract her from her view of life as empty and meaningless, nor can it distract her from her grief. The poem ends with April running down a hill and throwing flowers everywhere. April's actions try to signal joy, but they only echo death. The phrase “down this hill” evokes moving toward the end of something and an overall decline (Line 16). As April strews flowers everywhere, how many of those flowers will end up on the ground? Flowers already bridge the surface and the underground because of their roots. When someone looks at the flowers on the ground, they might recall the people buried there. Alternatively, people may overlook the flowers and step on them, perpetuating the callous ignoring of the dead.

Despite knowing about death and how it steals potential, the speaker's knowledge cannot change that fact. If her brain will end up worm and flower food, does any action she takes matter? It makes sense that she would feel “Life in itself / Is nothing” since her trade relies on thought and the longevity of the written word (Lines 13-14). She might end, but the world will continue without caring about her loss. Like a cup, existence can be emptied and refilled with new people (Line 15).