1

SPRING
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

William Shakespeare was a great poet and dramatist of the Elizabethan Age.
He wrote 37 plays, 2 narrative poems, and 154 sonnets.
His sonnets are mainly addressed to W.H., whose identity is unknown, and the
Dark Lady.
This poem is a song from his comedy, Loves Labours Lost.

Stanza 1:
In the first stanza, the poet describes flowers of different colours. (Daisies are of
different colours pied; violets are blue, cuckoo buds are yellow and lady- smocks are
white). These flowers blossom during spring. The cuckoo is also the bird of spring. But
its call is not pleasing to married men. Earlier, men whose wives were not faithful to
them were called cuckolds (The word cuckold comes from cuckoo because the female
cuckoo changes her mate and lays her eggs in the nests of other birds). So, it was
usual to alert a husband about another man by calling out cuckoo.
Analysis:
When daisies pied, and violets blue,
And lady-smocks all silver-white,
And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue
Do paint the meadows with delight,

Figure of Speech: Here, Shakespeare uses visual imagery (we can almost see these
flowers through his description) by describing flowers of different colours.
And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue
Do paint the meadows with delight,
Here the figure of speech is personification (the buttercups or cuckoo-buds are
described as painters. Just as painters paint walls and houses, here the flowers paint
the meadows yellow).

Do paint the meadows with delight In this line, the poet uses consonance (The
sound /d/ is repeated thrice in this line).

Analysis:

The cuckoo then, on every tree,

Mocks married men, for thus sings he:
'Cuckoo!
Cuckoo, cuckoo!' O word of fear,
Unpleasing to a married ear.

Figure of Speech: In these lines, the poet employs audio-visual imagery (Through
these lines, we can see the cuckoo sitting on the tree and also hear its sound).
O word of fear: In this line, the figure of speech used is apostrophe.

Dr. Sujatha Menon

 2

Unpleasing to a married ear: Here, the figure of speech is synecdoche (the part
stands for the whole; instead of saying married men, Shakespeare uses the word ear
a part of the body).

Mocks married men In this line, Shakespeare uses alliteration. The /m/ sound is
repeated.

Allusion: These lines about the cuckoo are a reference to a common belief about
husbands in the mid-fifteenth century. (The cuckoo is known for its unfaithful nature.
So, a man or woman who is unfaithful is compared to the cuckoo. The cuckoo lays its
eggs usually in the hedge sparrows nest. So the cuckold is a person cheated by
another man. The person is like the hedge sparrow)

Rhyme Scheme: The rhyme scheme is ababccadd. (Blue, hue, and cuckoo rhyme;
white and delight rhyme; tree and he rhyme; fear and ear rhyme)

Stanza 2:
Here, the poet describes different activities that the rustics (villagers or rural folk)
perform. The shepherd plays his pipe while taking care of the sheep. Young women
bleach their smocks white because they will need them in summer. Ploughmen go to
work in the fields. They are woken up by the sounds of larks. There is activity in the
animal world as well. Turtles move about, and so do birds like rooks and daws. But
amidst all this is the sound of the cuckoo. Its sound disturbs the minds of married
men.
Analysis:

When shepherds pipe on oaten straws,

And merry larks are ploughmen's clocks,
When turtles tread, and rooks, and daws,
And maidens bleach their summer smocks,

Figure of speech: The poet presents an audio-visual image in the first two lines. He
presents a visual image in the third and fourth lines.

And merry larks are ploughmen's clocks, The figure of speech used here is a
metaphor.

The cuckoo then, on every tree,

Mocks married men, for thus sings he:
'Cuckoo!
Cuckoo, cuckoo!' O word of fear,
Unpleasing to a married ear.

These lines serve as a refrain (They are repeated at the end of both stanzas). Since
this poem is a song and a set of five lines (quintain or quintet) is chosen as a refrain,
these lines are also called the chorus.

Dr. Sujatha Menon