“The Spring” Summary

“The Spring” Themes

• 

  The Hopelessness of Unrequited Love

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• 

  The Beauty of Nature

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Spring”

• Lines 1-4

  Now that the winter's gone, the earth hath lost
  Her snow-white robes, and now no more the frost
  Candies the grass, or casts an icy cream
  Upon the silver lake or crystal stream;

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 5-8

  But the warm sun thaws the benumbed earth,
  And makes it tender; gives a sacred birth
  To the dead swallow; wakes in hollow tree
  The drowsy cuckoo, and the humble-bee.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 9-12

  Now do a choir of chirping minstrels bring
  In triumph to the world the youthful Spring.
  The valleys, hills, and woods in rich array
  Welcome the coming of the long'd-for May.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 13-16

  Now all things smile, only my love doth lour;
  Nor hath the scalding noonday sun the power
  To melt that marble ice, which still doth hold
  Her heart congeal'd, and makes her pity cold.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 17-22

  The ox, which lately did for shelter fly
  Into the stall, doth now securely lie
  In open fields; and love no more is made
  By the fireside, but in the cooler shade
  Amyntas now doth with his Chloris sleep
  Under a sycamore,

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 22-24

  and all things keep
  Time with the season; only she doth carry
  June in her eyes, in her heart January.

  

  

  

  

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“The Spring” Symbols

• 

  January/Winter

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“The Spring” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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• Personification

  

  

  

  

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• Imagery

  

  

  

  

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• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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“The Spring” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Hath
• Candies
• Casts
• Icy cream
• Benumbed
• Swallow
• Drowsy cuckoo
• Humble-bee
• Chirping minstrels
• Rich array
• Long'd-for
• Doth
• Lour
• Congeal'd
• Amyntas
• Chloris
• Sycamore

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Spring”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“The Spring” Speaker

“The Spring” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “The Spring”

More “The Spring” Resources

• External Resources

  • Pastoral Poetry 101 — Learn more about the idyllic world of pastoral poetry, the influence of which appears in this poem's mentino of the shepherd Amyntas and his beloved Chloris.

  • Thomas Carew's Life and Work — A biography of the poet via the Poetry Foundation.

  • A Reading of Carew's Poem — Listen to "The Spring" out loud. 

  • Who Were the Cavalier Poets? — Read about the school of poets with whom Carew is usually associated.