spring, the sweet spring

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Spring, the Sweet Spring What connotations could spring have? E.g Winter – death, misery, depression. If spring was a part of your life, what would it represent? If you related spring to a stage of love, what would it represent?

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Page 1: Spring, the sweet spring

Spring, the Sweet SpringWhat connotations could spring have? E.g Winter – death,

misery, depression.If spring was a part of your life, what would it represent?

If you related spring to a stage of love, what would it represent?

Page 2: Spring, the sweet spring

Tone

Joy and excitement – celebrating the end ofthe cold and death and the arrival of warmthand opportunity.

There is also a certain nostalgia too it, withthe lingering on the thoughts with pausing invirtually every line.

Spring, the sweet spring, is the year’s pleasant king,Then blooms each thing, then maids dance in ring,Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing:

Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-wee, to-witta-woo!

The palm and may make country houses gay,Lambs frisk and play, the shepherds pipe all day,And we hear aye birds tune this merry lay:

Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-wee, to-witta-woo!

The fields breathe sweet, the daisies kiss our feet,Young lovers meet, old wives a-sunning sit,In every street these tunes our ears do greet:

Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-wee, to-witta-woo!Spring, the sweet spring!

Thomas Nashe (1567-1601)

Page 3: Spring, the sweet spring

ContextThomas Nashe (1567-1601)

Nashe is most famous as a pamphleteer. an odd career that now would see himworking for some Chinese restaurant or another. In Elizabethan times a pamphleteerwas a bit more prominent as pamphlets were one of the most effective ways tospread ideas or news across the country. Nashe’s pamphlets were apparently prettycontroversial in theme and his poetry also caused a bit of a stir, see if you can workout why!:

And make me happie, stealing by degrees. First bare hir legs, then creepe up to herknees …“Unhappyie me,” quoth she, “and wilt not stand? Com, let me rubb and chafe it with myhand!”

Do you really need to know this? No, but has it made you smile? No? Well, on with therelevant stuff then!

This is a song from Thomas Nashe’s 1600 play Summer’s Last Will and Testaments,which was seen as an intellectual masterpiece (according to Wikipedia!). It is apastoral play where the four seasons are personified and examined through differentcharacters.

Stop! Don’t rush out to read it or to the nearest performance – let’s just deal with thepoem.

Page 4: Spring, the sweet spring

Spring, the Sweet Spring

Pause and repetition within the title indicates fondness for this season. Gentle and nostalgic as this really references our youth.

Spring, the sweet spring, is the year’s pleasant king,Then blooms each thing, then maids dance in a ring,Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing:

Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-wee, to-witta-woo!

Elevating season by comparing it to royalty – contrast with summer which is described as ‘king of the world’ in the same

piece of work. Summer may be higher, but ‘pleasant king’ seems calmer, more peaceful and happier. Stress free king?

Imagery – a scene of rejoicing and

beauty. As if all these images are

joining together to rejoice the end of

winter.

Weather is just right – not too hot or cold.

Repeated onomatopoeia to represent various bird song – reinforce cheery,

sing song mood.

Page 5: Spring, the sweet spring

In the opening stanza Spring is crowned ‘the year’spleasant king’, contrasted with Summer which isseen as ‘king of the world’. This suggests to me thatwhile summer is rich, ripe and powerful, whileSpring is not as powerful it is the most joyous andenjoyable time of year.

Remember where this poem comes from – it ismeant to represent human life. Thus his affectionfor the season is his way of communicating the joysof the season.

‘Blooms’ suggest nature is at its most fresh andbeautiful stage; ‘maids’ dancing show that peopleare joyful and celebrating the end of the cold ofWinter (it is still cold, but it ‘doth not sting’ – chillyrather than unpleasant weather); and ‘pretty birds’singing creates an idea of optimism andcontentment for all elements of this pastoral world.This all seems focused on visual imagery.

Page 6: Spring, the sweet spring

The palm and may make country houses gay,Lambs frisk and play, the shepherds pipe all day,And we hear aye birds tune this merry lay:

Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-wee, to-witta-woo!

Palm and may are spring festivals. Spring is party

month and everyone seems to be joyful, happy, musical and playful. The end of the

struggle against winter.

All nature shares man’s joy. United

rural scene of celebration. Youth full of excitement

and energy.

If the country house represents the wealthy, then

the shepherds represent the

rural poor. Again all united in

celebration. They add music to the

party.

Birds singing a recurring image. Auditory imagery

dominates this second stanza.

Country houses were the centres of rural communities

and in spring everyone is merry.

Page 7: Spring, the sweet spring

Spring festivals – ‘palm and may’ – mean that thecountryside seemed to be filled with joy in stanzatwo and new born lambs ‘frisk and play’ conveyinga sense of energy, excitement and fresh spirit foreveryone. Those birds keep on chirping happily andnow are joined by shepherds becoming musicallyinspired too. Now we are being bombarded withthe sounds of merriment and enjoyment.

Page 8: Spring, the sweet spring

The fields breathe sweet, the daisies kiss our feet,Young lovers meet, old wives a-sunning sit,In every street these tunes our ears do greet:

Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-wee, to-witta-woo!Spring, the sweet spring!

From the visual imagery in stanza one, the auditory in stanza two, to the smells of

stanza three. Fresh grass and simple country flowers give us a fresh scent rather than an overpowering perfume.

First clear connection with

spring and youth. Young lovers

represent romance. Connects with the

youthful excitement and joy of all our

images.

I take this image to be one of

nostalgia. Old wives sitting out

in the gentle spring and

remembering their youth.

Everyone, everything and everywhere is celebrating.

Youth, excitement and opportunity.

‘Kiss’ helps emphasise the gentleness of this season.

Returns to the opening line, but this time

delivered alone and with an exclamation mark. As if

in conclusion to his pleasant reminiscence.

Page 9: Spring, the sweet spring

Finally, we ‘breathe sweet’ scents of nature beingreborn through fresh fields and daisies. This stanzaalso then makes a direct comparison between theseason and love, tying Spring to when ‘young loversmeet’ and thus romance, the excitement ofpossibility and maybe even fertility. It concludeswith an idea that the joy of Spring is not an isolatedthing, but ‘every street’ seems alive with the musicand joy of the season.

Page 10: Spring, the sweet spring

Language and techniques

Here it is all about imagery.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that imagery is just about making youimagine how something looks, but it is about immersing you into thewriter/poet’sworld.

Rich natural visuals of the ‘blooms’ on the trees, symbolising rebirthand beauty, are met with joyous human emotion expressed throughthe ‘maids [who] dance’ and the sounds of ‘shepherds pip[ing]‘ andbirds singing showing the harmony between all aspects of thecountryside. We are even challenged to imagine the freshness of theair when the ‘fields breathe sweet’.

Mention the repetition of the final line in each stanza. Onomatopoeiamakes us almost sing in the voices of the different birds (cuckoo,nightingale, lapwing and owl) as we read the poem and conveys thejoy that this poem expresses throughout and ties to the season.

You’ll sound very clever if you can also integrate sensible commentabout the use of pathetic fallacy. ‘Young lovers meet’ ties the idea ofthe natural freshness and excitement of Spring with the first emotionsof love or romance.

Page 11: Spring, the sweet spring

Structure

Rhyming is a big thing here and it’s prettyeasy to explain why.

You’ll notice that all the lines of each stanza,bar the last line, rhyme (sit is a half-rhyme…)! So simple. You may not havenoticed that this rhyme also appearssomewhere else in most lines:

Stanza 1 – spring, king, thing, ring, sting, singStanza 2 – may, gay, play, day, aye (I’m fairlysure it’smeant to be pronounced in the sameway here), layStanza 3 – sweet, feet, meet, sit (hmmm…),street, greet

Why? Remember this was originally a songin a play, so this simple rhyme helps withrhythm and to achieve a sing songyprogression that is as cheerful as the contentbeing covered.

The repetition of the bird song both acts as achorus and it fills the song/poem with joyfulchirping the whole way through.

Spring, the sweet spring, is the year’s pleasant king,Then blooms each thing, then maids dance in ring,Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing:

Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-wee, to-witta-woo!

The palm and may make country houses gay,Lambs frisk and play, the shepherds pipe all day,And we hear aye birds tune this merry lay:

Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-wee, to-witta-woo!

The fields breathe sweet, the daisies kiss our feet,Young lovers meet, old wives a-sunning sit,In every street these tunes our ears do greet:

Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-wee, to-witta-woo!Spring, the sweet spring!

Thomas Nashe (1567-1601)

Page 12: Spring, the sweet spring

Tone

Joy, contentment and excitement –celebrating the end of the cold and death andthe arrival of warmth and opportunity.

There is also a certain nostalgia too it, withthe lingering on the thoughts with pausing invirtually every line.

Themes

Obviously nature, but also romantic love andmortality. Mortality may seem a bit strange,but there is a reflection on death through thesheer unadulterated joy of the season,without any worries or cares.

Spring, the sweet spring, is the year’s pleasant king,Then blooms each thing, then maids dance in ring,Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing:

Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-wee, to-witta-woo!

The palm and may make country houses gay,Lambs frisk and play, the shepherds pipe all day,And we hear aye birds tune this merry lay:

Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-wee, to-witta-woo!

The fields breathe sweet, the daisies kiss our feet,Young lovers meet, old wives a-sunning sit,In every street these tunes our ears do greet:

Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-wee, to-witta-woo!Spring, the sweet spring!

Thomas Nashe (1567-1601)