Spring

The poem never states the speaker's name. However, it can be safe to interpret Millay as the poem's speaker. Millay identified during college as a pacifist, a person with anti-war beliefs (“Edna St. Vincent Millay.” Vassar College Encyclopedia, Vassar College, 2006), and she wrote the poem around 1920, only two years after the First World War's end in 1918 (“Vincent Millay Reads Her Poems“). The mass loss of life from the War traumatized entire generations, which fostered a culture of cynicism and mourning. Since the poem deals with the speaker's grief-driven cynicism, readers can easily spot Millay's personal beliefs and cultural experiences in the speaker.

Millay investigates life and time as a contradiction of change, stagnation, growth, and inevitability with a sarcastic wit in “Spring.” Millay places time's progression at the poem's center by remarking upon April's return in the first line. While the speaker enjoyed the month's beauty in the past, it will no longer give her a sense of peace or distract her from her knowledge.

Millay signals to the reader that the speaker endured a profound shift in perspective. Why question April's reason for returning now? The question makes sense if the speaker recently learned something that impacted her view on April's presence and impact.