The Spring and the Fall by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Summary: The Spring and the Fall by Edna St. Vincent Millay is a poem about love and how the speaker sees it in the Spring and the Fall

Characters:

Speaker - Speaks of her feelings of the heart in the Spring and the Fall and then summarizes them together

Verse 1:

  • The speaker talks of the spring of the year as she walks on the road "beside" the one she loves
  • The speaker notices the wet parts of the tree and how dark they were in the spring
  • The speaker talks about how her "dear" would go out of the way for her to make her happy

Verse 2:

  • The speaker talks of the fall of the year as she walks on the road "beside" the one she loves
  • The noise that the crows (rooks) make come to her attention in the fall
  • The one she calls dear makes fun of her when she praises things, and little by little breaks her heart

Verse 3:

  • The speaker says that year after year there are things that she expects like dark barks and bird's trills
  • She recalls things that she likes to think as "fine" in praise
  • She grieves of losing her love in little ways

Other Notes:

  • Edna St. Vincent Millay is known for her poems of love
  • Rooks are crows
  • Edna St. Vincent ties in her speaker's love with times of the year when life springs and the time of the year when it is the dusk of life
  • In spring it seems everything is blooming and brand new, as is the feelings of her love for her dear
  • In fall it seems the things that were once blooming in spring are now being picked at and are beginning to fall away like perhaps the leaves of a maple tree or in the form of the speaker's love making fun of her for liking and "praising" certain things

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