The Widow's Lament in Springtime
The Widow's Lament in Springtime - context Summary
Published in 1920 Sour Grapes
Written for William Carlos Williams's 1920 collection Sour Grapes, this short dramatic monologue presents a widow who contrasts the bright renewal of spring with an unrelenting, personal sorrow. Over thirty-five years of marriage frame her loss; blossoms and meadows only deepen her sense of isolation. The poem locates grief within ordinary domestic and seasonal detail, ending with a quiet, almost wishful desire to disappear into the landscape of flowers and marsh.
Read Complete AnalysesSorrow is my own yard where the new grass flames as it has flamed often before but not with the cold fire that closes round me this year. Thirtyfive years I lived with my husband. The plumtree is white today with masses of flowers. Masses of flowers load the cherry branches and color some bushes yellow and some red but the grief in my heart is stronger than they for though they were my joy formerly, today I notice them and turn away forgetting. Today my son told me that in the meadows, at the edge of the heavy woods in the distance, he saw trees of white flowers. I feel that I would like to go there and fall into those flowers and sink into the marsh near them.
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