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Tongco, Bianca Nicole S.

Mr. Jojo Nicdao

Modern Literature

October 7, 2010

“Spring and Fall: to a young child”

The poem has fifteen lines. The rhyme scheme is aabbccdddeeffgg. With this rhyme

scheme, one can notice that the rhyme from line 7 to line 9 is repeated. Also, it is only rhyme d

that is repeated twice.

The poem begins with a question in the first two lines. The persona narrating the poem is

asking if she is grieving over Goldengrove, if ever that is a person. It can also be an event that

Margaret is grieving over. Lastly, it can also be a place, which is most likely, because of the

word grove. Then, the third and fourth lines make up another question. The persona is asking if

she can grieve with leaves, like the things of man. The leaves here can be Margaret’s

possessions. Then the fourth line talks about fresh thoughts. The fresh thoughts being talked

about here can be any of Margaret’s thoughts or ideas. Margaret, in this poem, can be the young

child being referred to in the title of the poem.

Moving on to the fifth line up to the sixth line, the narrating persona says, “as the heart

grows colder, it will come to such sights colder.” This could mean that as one grows older, he or

she can grow less emotional. For example, in general, an adult would not grieve as much when

he or she loses a game or gets picked at as a little kid would. Then, moving on to the seventh line
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up to the ninth line, the by and by in the seventh line means in a short time or before long. With

this, the narrator says that in a short time, though the pale, gloomy woods will be broken up leaf

by leaf, probably a time when a really long time has passed because the woods have already

broken up, Margaret will weep. It can also talk about fall since the narrating persona describes

how woods will be broken up leaf by leaf thus describing the fall of the leaves.

Then to the tenth line, the narrating persona says that sorrow’s springs are the same no

matter what that time is called and he or she tells Margaret this. Then on the twelfth line, the

narrating persona is saying that neither one mouth nor one mind expressed what the heart heard

of. After this, he or she goes to say that a soul guessed. A soul here can also refer to any person.

That soul’s guess is that man was born for blight. This could mean that every man is born for his

ruin someday. This means that all men will die someday and this holds true. As for the last line

“It is Margaret you mourn for.”, the narrating persona says that it is that person named Margaret

Margaret is grieving for. If the spelling is to be taken consideration of, the first Margaret is

different from the Margaret on the last line. However, if Margaret found on the first line is just

the same as Margaret in the last line, then the narrating persona says that she is weeping or

mourning for the situation that she’s going to face in the future.

All in all, as for my interpretation, the poem speaks about life’s spoiler which is death.

Margaret, here in the poem, is still probably at a very young age when she found out that

someday, in the future, she will die because everyone will. Then the fourth line asks her if she

can already grieve about her death “with her fresh thoughts care for, can she?” because

Margaret’s young age is emphasized here. Maybe the narrator is saying that she‘s still too young

to care or grieve about her death. She still has her dreams, which can also be referred to by “fresh

thoughts”. Then the narrator is saying that sorrow’s springs are the same no matter what the
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name is. This could mean that death is death regardless of the time it took place. Then on the

fourteenth line, it is said that man was born for blight; every man is meant to die. Because of this

interpretation about death, one can feel that the tone or the mood of the poem is sad.

 We had different intepretation of the poem. I didn’t think the poem was

about death.

 She has a point; the poem could be about death. Some lines in the

poem could suggest that meaning. Her first level interpretation of the

poem were complete. But in her interpretation of the meaning of the

poem lack the evidence that the poem was talking about death. Like

the Goldengrove that was also mentioned in th epeom, how was it

related to death.

 But I think she did enough interpretation in the literal part of the poem.

Grading Essays

Papers will be graded based on the following

 I would give her 8 because the essay is agreeable and

convincing but did not have quite enough evidences. It is

sufficient for the reader to understand her first level

interpretation. The essay also fulfills what is required to be

answered and developed it in a two and ¼ page paper. The

writing is clear and coherent. The lines are interpreted

according to their order in the poem. However, the paper has

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failed to include some parts in the poem to support the

interpretation of the poem.