The Spring And The Fall

"The Spring and the Fall” is a lyric poem and Line 1 establishes its tone: "In the spring of the year, in the spring of the year” is nostalgic and melodious. The speaker is in a reflective mood as she recalls the springtime. Her voice has a songlike quality as all the words in Line 1 are monosyllabic words. The repetition also contributes to her rhythmic voice.

"I walked the road beside my dear,” the speaker says in Line 2. The line is in the past tense, which bolsters the nostalgic feeling of the poem. Indeed, the poem's action is in the past tense. There's distance between her and the relationship with her "dear.” She's pensively looking back on their romance.

In Line 3, the speaker provides an image: "The trees were black where the bark was yet.” The image is a literary device that helps the reader see what the speaker sees. Using simple, concise language, Millay helps the reader envision the couple on the road and the black, wet trees. In Line 4, the speaker reaffirms what she saw: "I see them yet, in the spring of the year.” The speaker’s drive to reassert that she saw these things indicates that she may be vulnerable and perhaps still influenced by her relationship. If the sights and man were unimportant, she wouldn’t still be focused on the details of the occasion.

In Line 5, the speaker's beloved "broke [her] a bough of the blossoming peach.” The masculine pronoun "he" used in this line assumes that the speaker is a woman. This does not mean that the poem's feelings are exclusive to heterosexual people—a person of any gender and sexual identity can feel as the speaker does. However, based on the poem's date and its relationship to the poet, it makes sense for the speaker to be a woman. The speaker doesn’t necessarily have to be Millay, but it doesn’t hurt to note that Millay initiated many affairs that keenly impacted her and became material for her work.

Returning to the poem—the man does something somewhat relatively heroic for the speaker in Stanza 1. The peach he grabs was on a bough that was "out of the way and hard to reach” (Line 6). Thus, the last line of Stanza 1 ends in a romantic tone, with the man laboring to make a sweet gesture for the woman.

The first two lines of Stanza 2 mirror the first two lines of Stanza 1, with one change. Millay swaps "spring” for "fall” in Line 7. The repetition keeps the poem focused on the seasons and the couple on the road. Although now, the memories are of fall. In Line 9, the speaker provides an image of loud crows as the "rooks went up with a raucous trill.” Just as the speaker could still see the black trees and wet bark in Stanza 1, the speaker can still "hear” (Line 10) the sounds of the crows in Stanza 2.

The rowdy crow noises add another element to the tone of the poem. Their appearance signals discord. Indeed, in Line 11, the speaker and her dear are at odds: "He laughed at all I dared to praise.” The man’s cruel laugh and the crow’s "raucous trill” (Line 9) take the tone in a negative direction as these aren’t pleasant sounds. The new tone comes through in Line 12 when the speaker says that the man "broke [her] heart, in little ways.” The word "little” bolsters the wistful tone of the poem as "little” is a delicate, subjective diction choice.

In Line 13, Millay joins the two seasons when her speaker declares, "Year be springing or year be falling.” Millay turns the nouns into verbs—a hint that the seasons possess a greater meaning. The spring symbolizes life and movement. It links to the theme of love and how love can grow. The fall represents decay and connects to the theme of love in decline. Yet the speaker doesn’t prefer spring over fall even though the former appears to be more promising. The speaker says there’s "much that’s fine to see and hear” (Line 15) in both seasons. The speaker articulates the seasons' differences and similarities: She both holds them apart and brings them together.

In the final two lines, the speaker makes an explicit connection between the seasons and love. As with love, the seasons come and go. The speaker explains, "'Tis not love’s going hurts my days” (Line 17). That which brings the speaker pain isn’t that love, like seasons and days, moves on. What vexes her is how love dissipates "in little ways” (Line 18). Once again, the word "little” reinforces the delicate state of the speaker and her tone. Throughout the poem, the speaker discussed love and the small proofs of both love’s presence and its absence. If the speaker sounds sad, it's because she’s talking about one of her relationships and how it touches on the impermanence of love, which isn't the most cheerful of themes.