Spring & Fall Analysis

to a young child
Margaret, are you grieving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leaves, like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Ah! as the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By |&| by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you w{'i}ll weep |&| know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sorrow's springs are the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What h{'e}art h{'e}ard of, gh{'o}st gu{'e}ssed:
It is the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.

.: analysis :.

A child matures when they realize that life is defined by both good and bad, spring and
fall. To have one, you need the other. Some people take this realization and can’t handle
it. and kill themselves or live in misery all their lives. Others accept this revelation, making
it easier to go through the hard times of life. Compared to fall, spring is almost too
beautiful. But fall can be beautiful too. It just depends on how you see it.
The first two lines ask ‘Margaret are you grieving, over Goldengrove unleaving’?
Goldengrove is the world through the child’s eyes. It seems that world is unleaving, or
fading away to the child. The third stanza compares leaves to the things of man. Margaret
has an understanding of nature, so she realizes that mans mortality is the same as natures.
It’s always going through spring and fall. The poem states that as you grow older, you
will see sights colder. Then the poems eighth line says, ‘through worlds of wanwood
leafmeal lie’. These two lines state that, even though the idea of goldengrove seems so
big, there is a much bigger world beyond the boundaries of goldengrove, full of death and
decay.
At this point, Margaret seems to go through an acceptance of life, and weeps. She
has more of an understanding of why she weeps. The feeling Margaret weeps for is
grief that everyone feels throughout life. In the tenth and eleventh lines, it is stated that
every sorrow comes from the same source, but this sorrow will help you understand death
and loss.
In the twelve line, the poem describes that this understanding of the grief and death is
not spoken of or able to be thought of, but is automatically understood by the heart,
maybe as you experience it more as you get older. It is personally understood as you go
through losses and sadness. In the thirteenth line, ‘what heart heard of’, the poem is
saying that the heart takes on this emotion. The next line, the fourteenth line,
goes, ‘it is the blight man was born for’, blight meaning a disease that harms or destroys.

| Posted on 2008-03-17 | by a guest

.: A father's message? :.

A father tells his child the truths about grief and life, life and death. He explains it in a colder, less sensitive manner than what a mother may do. The child cannot understand this yet. She is too young to know the truths, atrocities and concerns that will learn as she grows older. Right now, it is just her world, not just herself, she cries for - the leaves that fall in autumn, the sun that fades after the summer, the death of life that is upon us - but she does not know why. She cannot know, because she is only a child. She hasn't learnt this yet. What is death? What is the loss of one's self anyway?

| Posted on 2004-11-04 | by Approved Guest