A love song from blossom to snow
From Spring Days to Winter
"O merrily the throstle sings!"
Poem
(For Music)
In the glad springtime when leaves were green,O merrily the throstle sings!I sought, amid the tangled sheen,Love whom mine eyes had never seen,O the glad dove has golden wings!
Between the blossoms red and white,O merrily the throstle sings!My love first came into my sight,O perfect vision of delight,O the glad dove has golden wings!
The yellow apples glowed like fire,O merrily the throstle sings!O Love too great for lip or lyre,Blown rose of love and of desire,O the glad dove has golden wings!
But now with snow the tree is grey,Ah, sadly now the throstle sings!My love is dead: ah! well-a-day,See at her silent feet I layA dove with broken wings!Ah, Love! ah, Love! that thou wert slain—Fond Dove, fond Dove return again!
In brief
SummaryA song in four stanzas, written, as its subtitle says, for music. Through the first three stanzas two refrains ring out, 'O merrily the throstle sings!' and 'O the glad dove has golden wings!', while the speaker tells how in spring a love never yet seen was sought, then found among red and white blossoms, then celebrated as a love 'too great for lip or lyre' when the apples glowed. In the last stanza snow greys the tree, the throstle sings sadly, and the beloved is dead. At her feet the speaker lays 'A dove with broken wings'.
Key themes
"O the glad dove has golden wings!"
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The first stanza opens 'In the glad springtime when leaves were green', as the speaker searches 'amid the tangled sheen' for a 'Love whom mine eyes had never seen'. In the second, 'Between the blossoms red and white', the beloved first comes into sight, 'O perfect vision of delight'. In the third, with 'The yellow apples' glowing like fire, the speaker hails Love itself as 'too great for lip or lyre', a full-blown 'rose of love and of desire'. Each of these stanzas is framed by the two refrains of the merry throstle and the glad dove with golden wings.
The last stanza breaks the pattern. The tree is grey with snow, and the refrain changes to 'Ah, sadly now the throstle sings!' The beloved is dead, and at 'her silent feet' the speaker lays 'A dove with broken wings', so that the golden-winged dove of the refrain becomes an offering of grief. This stanza runs two lines longer than the others, ending with a cry to Love, 'that thou wert slain', and a plea to the dove: 'Fond Dove, fond Dove return again!'
Characters
The speaker
The mourning lover
The singer of the song, who goes looking in spring for a 'Love whom mine eyes had never seen', finds her among the blossoms and loves her beyond words. In winter the speaker lays a dove with broken wings 'at her silent feet' and begs it to return.
The beloved
Love found and lost
The woman who first appears 'Between the blossoms red and white', greeted as 'O perfect vision of delight'. By the last stanza she is dead, and the speaker lays a broken-winged dove at her 'silent feet'.
Themes
The seasons of love
The poem maps a love affair onto the year, as its title promises. Spring brings the search, blossom time the first sight, and the season of 'yellow apples' love at its height, 'Blown rose of love and of desire'. Winter brings death: 'now with snow the tree is grey'. Each stanza marks one step of the journey from spring days to winter.
Refrain and its breaking
The song depends on repetition. In each of the first three stanzas the same refrains return unchanged: 'O merrily the throstle sings!' and 'O the glad dove has golden wings!' In the last stanza both change. The throstle sings 'sadly', and the golden-winged dove becomes 'A dove with broken wings'. The altered refrain carries the grief more strongly than any statement could.
Quotes
Context
The subtitle, '(For Music)', shows that the poem was meant to be sung, and its form suits a musical setting: short stanzas, simple rhymes and two refrains repeated through the first three stanzas and altered in the last. The throstle and the dove are its two recurring birds, the first marking the mood of each season and the second standing for love itself.
About this edition
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