Song of a Second April

“Spring” by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1921)

The opening poem of Millay’s poetry collection Second April, “Spring” has much in common with the closely related poem “Song of a Second April.” Besides both poems’ focus on the changing of the seasons and the beginning of spring with April, the two poems also explore their speakers’ dissatisfaction with the world around them after experiencing personal loss. For the speaker of “Spring,” the “[b]eauty” (Line 2) of “idiot” (Line 18) April is “not enough” (Line 2) to overcome this misery or the sense of death and purposelessness that pervades the speaker’s surroundings.

“Elegy Before Death” by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1921)

Also from Second April, “Elegy Before Death” is another poem interested in the topic of death and personal loss. The poem explores how the natural world, symbolized by “rain” (Line 6), “robins” (Line 7), and flowers, continues unperturbed after the death of the speaker’s loved one. Spring and autumn do not “falter” (Line 9) and will never “know” (Line 10) what has been lost with the death of one human being, no matter how dear to the speaker that person is.

“Journey” by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1921)

In this poem from Second April, Millay portrays her lifestyle of travel and touring and contrasts her continual movement with the calm stillness of nature. She wishes she could “lay […] down in this long grass” (Line 1) and feel the wind “[b]low over” (Line 3) her; she cannot resist leaving this “loveliness” (Line 6) and “peace” (Line 9) behind. However, she is “[t]ugged” (Line 8) away by an unseen force. The tension between the natural beauty Millay delights in and her feeling of restless discontent is not unlike the conflict within “Song of a Second April.”