Spring

Millay reached maturity during a traumatic period of world history. In 1918, War and a Flu Pandemic coincided, killing swaths of young people. Written at least two years later, “Spring” reflects how heavily Americans remained in mourning after these events.

World War I began in 1914 after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Due to a complex network of alliances and rivalries, War broke out across Europe. The United States entered the War in 1917, a year before the conflict officially ended.

The War became remembered for its brutality, thanks to innovations in warfare. Mustard gas, infamously, burned and suffocated soldiers in trenches. The War killed 8,528,831 and wounded 21,189,154 combatants by its end. 116,516 Americans died.

Because military personnel traveled across the sea and countryside, their movements aided in spreading a new strain of influenza. The strain then called the Spanish Influenza evolved into the Pandemic of 1918. The 1918 Pandemic lasted until 1919, though the virus remained seasonally active.

Unlike previous strains, the 1918 strain hit healthy young people the hardest. The United States Center for Disease Control reported that the deceased flu patients' average age was 28. Once people contracted the virus, they quickly became violently ill, with some dying reportedly within a day. Patients with severe cases experienced pneumonia and organ failure.

Of the approximate 500 million people worldwide infected by the virus, an estimated 675,000 Americans died.

Because of the massive loss of young people, Millay's generation became known as the Lost Generation. These tragedies, which appeared random and pointless, deeply impacted global culture.

People's grief led to a resurgence in Spiritualism (a religious movement that believed the dead regularly contacted the living), a partying culture, and anti-establishment artistic movements.

Like her peers, Millay coped with the massive scale of loss through her work. “Spring” specifically references the corpses of men rather than the corpses of people. Because the Pandemic and the War coincided, men significantly contributed to the death count. Likewise, Millay contrasts the lush new plant life with the visible absence of the dead. Life reveals itself as hollow, like “an empty cup” (Line 15).

The nature of the 1918 pandemic arguably influenced how Millay wrote about death. Millay moved to New York City after graduating from Vassar in 1917. As a social butterfly in an urban center, it would have been hard for her not to be somehow impacted by the 1918 Flu. Medical experts and survivors noted the 1918 strain struck quickly and suddenly, which is reflected in death's sudden appearance at the halfway point of “Spring.” She also refers to life's emptiness in domestic terms, “an empty cup, a flight of uncarpeted stairs” (Line 15). Many influenza deaths happened in the home, making what once seemed a safe space a reminder of a loss of a loved one. Instead of acknowledging the dead, April drunkenly marches over them and throws flowers over the landscape.