The lintwhite and the throstlecock...
The lintwhite and the throstlecock... - meaning Summary
Plea to Fleeting Spring
The poem stages small birds pleading with the personified "fair year" or May to linger. Across four stanzas the singers praise the season’s beauty—voice, breath, light, golden hair—and beg it not to depart. The repeated entreaties turn simple natural imagery into a lament about transience: joy depends on the season’s presence, and its leaving means the end of life and delight.
Read Complete AnalysesI The lintwhite and the throstlecock Have voices sweet and clear; All in the bloomed May. They from the blosmy brere Call to the fleeting year, If that he would them hear And stay. Alas! that one so beautiful Should have so dull an ear. II Fair year, fair year, thy children call, But thou art deaf as death; All in the bloomèd May. When thy light perisheth That from thee issueth, Our life evanisheth: Oh! stay. Alas! that lips so cruel-dumb Should have so sweet a breath! III Fair year, with brows of royal love Thou comest, as a king, All in the bloomèd May. Thy golden largess fling, And longer hear us sing; Though thou art fleet of wing, Yet stay. Alas! that eyes so full of light Should be so wandering! IV Thy locks are all of sunny sheen In rings of gold yronne, All in the bloomèd May, We pri’thee pass not on; If thou dost leave the sun, Delight is with thee gone, Oh! stay. Thou art the fairest of thy feres, We pri’thee pass not on.
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