First Robin
First Robin - meaning Summary
Grief Meets Springtime Arrivals
The poem describes a speaker confronting the return of spring as a painful reminder after loss. She anticipates the first robin, daffodils, grass, and bees as tests she might not survive emotionally, imagining avoidance or protection by time. Nature, however, arrives in full force, indifferent to her grief. Calling herself the "Queen of Calvary," she accepts a diminished, ritual acknowledgment of the world’s ongoing life. The poem contrasts private mourning with the season’s public renewal, showing how continuity and small everyday acts force a reluctant engagement with recovery.
Read Complete AnalysesI dreaded that first robin so, But he is mastered now, And I’m accustomed to him grown,– He hurts a little, though. I thought if I could only live Till that first shout got by, Not all pianos in the woods Had power to mangle me. I dared not meet the daffodils, For fear their yellow gown Would pierce me with a fashion So foreign to my own. I wished the grass would hurry, So when ‘t was time to see, He’d be too tall, the tallest one Could stretch to look at me. I could not bear the bees should come, I wished they’d stay away In those dim countries where they go: What word had they for me? They’re here, though; not a creature failed, No blossom stayed away In gentle deference to me, The Queen of Calvary. Each one salutes me as he goes, And I my childish plumes Lift, in bereaved acknowledgment Of their unthinking drums.
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