The Full Text of “Description of Spring”
Wherein each thing renews, save only the lover
1The soote season, that bud and bloom forth brings,
2With green hath clad the hill and eke the vale:
3The nightingale with feathers new she sings:
4The turtle to her make hath told her tale:
5Summer is come, for every spray now springs,
6The hart hath hung his old head on the pale:
7The buck in brake his winter coat he flings:
8The fishes flete with new repaired scale:
9The adder all her slough away she slings:
10The swift swallow pursueth the flies smale:
11The busy bee her honey now she mings:
12Winter is worn that was the flowers' bale.
13And thus I see among these pleasant things
14Each care decays, and yet my sorrow springs.
The Full Text of “Description of Spring”
Wherein each thing renews, save only the lover
1The soote season, that bud and bloom forth brings,
2With green hath clad the hill and eke the vale:
3The nightingale with feathers new she sings:
4The turtle to her make hath told her tale:
5Summer is come, for every spray now springs,
6The hart hath hung his old head on the pale:
7The buck in brake his winter coat he flings:
8The fishes flete with new repaired scale:
9The adder all her slough away she slings:
10The swift swallow pursueth the flies smale:
11The busy bee her honey now she mings:
12Winter is worn that was the flowers' bale.
13And thus I see among these pleasant things
14Each care decays, and yet my sorrow springs.
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“Description of Spring” Introduction
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"Description of Spring" is a sonnet written by courtier and poet Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, during the reign of Henry VIII (1509-1547). The poem describes the bountiful beauty of spring and summer, when the world is filled with green hills, blooming flowers, and singing birds. Yet even as the natural world seems happy and glorious, the heartbroken speaker feels rotten. The change in the seasons doesn't soften the speaker's pain; on the contrary, the only thing that blossoms is the speaker's sorrow.
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“Description of Spring” Summary
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Everything renews in the spring, except for the lover.
The sweet season makes plants bud and bloom. The hills and valleys are covered with green. The nightingale sings with fresh new feathers. The turtledove sings her song to her mate. Summer has arrived, and flowers blossom from the ground. The hart has left his old antlers on a fence. The buck has shed his winter coat. Fish dart about with fresh scales. The snake sloughs away her old skin. The swallow quickly chases little flies. The busy bee mixes her honey. Winter, the flowers' enemy, has faded. Yet even as I watch this pleasantness make worries melt away, my sadness blooms.
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“Description of Spring” Themes
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Nature's Beauty vs. Heartbreak
Spring and summer in Henry Howard's "Description of Spring" fill the world with nature's beauty, bounty, and variety. These seasons are a time of delight and renewal, yet, for all their joy, they can't cheer the lovelorn speaker up. In fact, the fresh beauty of spring and summer simply throws the speaker's sorrow into starker relief. The poem thus demonstrates the power not just of nature but also of heartbreak, which can overwhelm people even when there's much to feel happy about.
For its first 12 lines, the poem seems to be a straightforward celebration of spring and summer. The "soote" (meaning "sweet") season is a time when the flowers are in "Bud and bloom," greenery covers the landscape, and a whole host of animals seems to enjoy the new lease of life that comes with the warmer months. The world casts off the old and welcomes the new: a snake "slings" away her old skin, a buck deer "flings" off his heavy winter coat, and fish flash their "repaired scale[s]."
The rejuvenation of the seasons seems to grant these creatures a sense of purpose and vitality. Birds eat small flies while the "busy bee" industriously produces more honey. Spring and summer, of course, are also mating season for many creatures. The speaker notes that a turtledove has "told her tale" to her mate (that is, she's sung her song to attract a partner).
But though the plant and animal worlds in the poem seem refreshed and renewed, the speaker doesn't feel the same way at all. In fact, the speaker's "sorrow" just stands out more clearly against the backdrop of the seasons' beauty; these signs of joy and delight are a reminder of how miserable the speaker is because "each thing renews" in spring "save only the lover." In other words, the one thing that doesn't refresh along with the rest of the world is this "lover's" affection. Instead, ironically, what "springs" forth with the change of season is the speaker's "sorrow." The speaker's heartache is what grows, as though it too has been given a new lease on life. Happiness, the poem suggests, doesn't keep time with the seasons—and nothing hits as hard as a broken heart.
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Description of Spring”
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Before Line 1, Lines 1-4
Wherein each thing renews, save only the lover
The soote season, that bud and bloom forth brings,
With green hath clad the hill and eke the vale:
The nightingale with feathers new she sings:
The turtle to her make hath told her tale:The poem starts with an epigraph (sometimes written out as a subtitle) that sums up its main idea. This is a "Description of Spring," a season "wherein" (or in which) "each thing renews, save only the lover." In other words, spring is a time when everything is refreshed and rejuvenated—everything, that is, except for "the lover." Right up top, the poem implies that the speaker's lover has decided to end their relationship (to not "renew" its terms).
The poem itself then begins by declaring that it's the "soote," meaning "sweet," season, that time of year "that bud and bloom forth brings." Gone is the barren misery of winter, replaced by the sweet delights of spring. The bright /b/ alliteration of this line evokes the way that fresh growth and color burst forth in spring:
The soote season, that bud and bloom forth brings,
Spring has "clad," or clothed, the hills and vales with "green," the speaker continues. The speaker is subtly personifying both spring and the landscape here, granting it agency and purpose: the season gently cloaks every inch of the land, from tall hills to deep valleys, in life.
It's not just the landscape that renews in spring, either: animals, too, are rejuvenated by the shifting season. The "nightingale," decked out with fresh feathers, "sings" her song, while the turtledove warbles out a tune to her "make," or mate. Again, the poem's sounds help make its imagery more vibrant. Listen to the alliteration and consonance of line 4:
The turtle to her make hath told her tale:
Those flitting /t/ and lilting /t/ sounds recreate the bright, joyful music of spring's natural orchestra. The mention of the turtledove's mate, meanwhile, is a sad, subtle reminder that the speaker's own beloved has left.
"Description of Spring" is a sonnet. (Henry Howard played a major role in the development of the sonnet in English-language poetry.) This opening quatrain features an alternating, ABAB rhyme scheme and is written in iambic pentameter: a meter containing five iambs, poetic feet with a da-DUM rhythm, per line.
The soote | season, | that bud | and bloom | forth brings,
With green | hath clad | the hill | and eke | the vale:There's a trochee (the opposite foot of an iamb, DUM-da) in the second foot of line 1 ("season"). This adds some emphasis to the word "seasons," subtly conveying spring's power. Overall, though, the regular rhyme scheme and meter lend the poem a steady, propulsive music.
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Lines 5-8
Summer is come, for every spray now springs,
The hart hath hung his old head on the pale:
The buck in brake his winter coat he flings:
The fishes flete with new repaired scale: -
Lines 9-12
The adder all her slough away she slings:
The swift swallow pursueth the flies smale:
The busy bee her honey now she mings:
Winter is worn that was the flowers' bale. -
Lines 13-14
And thus I see among these pleasant things
Each care decays, and yet my sorrow springs.
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“Description of Spring” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Alliteration
"Description of Spring" is bursting with alliteration, which fills the poem with joyful music right from its opening line:
The soote season, that bud and bloom forth brings,
The gentle sibilance of "soote season" suggests the soothing sweetness of spring, while those plosive /b/ sounds practically bounce off the page. Alliteration makes the poem feel vibrantly alive, just as the warming weather rejuvenates the natural world.
Alliteration can also evoke the specific imagery at hand. Take the crisp /t/ sounds of line 4, which suggests the gentle chirping of that turtledove:
The turtle to her make hath told her tale:
Later, the sibilance of "slough"/"slings" fits right in with the image of a snake shedding her skin. Similarly, the /sw/ sounds of "swift swallow" might make readers think of the rustle of the bird's wings through the spring air. In the next line, the bouncy alliteration of "busy bee" highlight's the little bug's industrious activity.
Nearly every line in the poem features some alliteration, and this abundance of sound mirrors the abundance of spring itself. Alliteration makes the poem's language more pleasant and exciting, just as spring makes the earth lovelier.
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Irony
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Imagery
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Personification
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Parallelism
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"Description of Spring" Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Soote
- Hath
- Clad
- Eke
- Vale
- Turtle
- Make
- Spray
- Hart
- Old head
- Pale
- Buck
- Flete
- Brake
- Adder
- Slough
- Swift
- Swallow
- Pursueth
- Mings
- Bale
- Care
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Sweet.
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Description of Spring”
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Form
"Description of Spring" is a sonnet. Sonnets got their start in Italian, but Henry Howard helped pioneer the form in English. Howard is in fact credited with starting the trend of breaking the sonnet up into three quatrains followed by a final rhyming couplet. The quatrains of an English sonnet also follow an alternating rhyme scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF.
"Description of Spring" follows this form, with one variation: the three quatrains here are pretty inseparable because they all use the same rhyme sounds (the end rhymes all end with "-ings"/"-ale"), making their rhyme scheme is ABAB ABAB ABAB. Technically, then, the poem can be broken up into one stanza of 12 lines plus a closing couplet.
English sonnets typically contain something called a volta, or turn, in that final couplet: a moment marked by an abrupt shift in tone, or when the speaker responds in some way to the poem's previous 12 lines. The volta here is clear, as the speaker switches from describing the rejuvenating beauty of spring to describing the persistence of their sorrow.
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Meter
"Description of Spring" is written in iambic pentameter: lines containing five iambs, metrical feet that follow an unstressed-stressed pattern of syllables (da-DUM). This is the typical meter for English-language sonnets.
Iambs approximate the sound of conversational English, and, here, they also fill the poem with a steady heartbeat and sense of momentum that evoke the vibrancy of the world in spring. Listen to this meter in action in line 7, for example:
The buck | in brake | his wint-| er coat | he flings:
There are some variations on this meter throughout the poem, which keep things interesting and add emphasis to important moments. Line 1, for example, contains a trochee (a metrical foot that follows a stressed-unstressed pattern) in its second foot:
The soote | season, | that bud | and bloom | forth brings,
This trochee adds force to the phrase "soote season," subtly relaying the power that the dawning spring has over the natural world. Something similar happens with the trochee at the start of line 5:
Summer | is come, | for eve- | ry spray | now springs,
Here, the opening stress grants the line a sense of urgency; summer has arrived, and it demands everyone's attention.
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Rhyme Scheme
Typical English sonnets feature three quatrains of alternating rhyme followed by a rhyming couplet: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. Howard's poem follows this general pattern, but it relies on just two rhyme sounds throughout: "-ings" or "-ale." The rhyme scheme of "Description of Spring" thus runs ABAB ABAB ABAB AA.
In a way, the poem reflects the influence of earlier Italian sonnets, which rely on fewer rhyme sounds (their opening two quatrains rhyme ABBA ABBA; it's easier to rhyme in Italian than it is in English). On one level, the rhymes, like the poem's bountiful alliteration, fill "Description of Spring" with bouncy, joyous music. At the same time, the repetitive nature of these rhyme sounds might make them seem relentless or even oppressive. Their music might be an affront to the mournful speaker, just as spring's beauty is a constant reminder that the lovesick speaker is out of step with the rest of the world.
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“Description of Spring” Speaker
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The poem's speaker is someone observing the beauty and bounty of spring through the lens of their own heartache. The poem's epigraph/subtitle hints at the speaker's misery before the poem even begins:
Wherein each thing renews, save only the lover
That "save only the lover" hangs over the entire poem: the speaker acknowledges that spring's arrival rejuvenates the world, yet it can't "renew" a lover's affection. Readers can guess that the speaker's beloved has rejected them; as a result, the lovesick speaker can't enjoy the beauty of the season. The speaker's "sorrow" is all that blooms this time of year, implying that the "pleasant" beauty of spring only makes the speaker's loneliness and pain more acute.
The poem doesn't say much about the identity of the speaker, but there might be an element of autobiography. The Tudor court was a lustful place, and both Howard and his fellow sonnet pioneer Sir Thomas Wyatt frequently wrote about their amorous adventures.
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“Description of Spring” Setting
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The poem takes place in spring and summer: the "soote," or sweet, time of year when the natural world comes vibrantly alive. Flowers bloom and the hills are "clad" with greenery. Mammals shed their winter coats and snakes slough off their old skins; birds are singing, fish are swimming, and bees are making honey. In short, the whole world seems to be happy and flourishing.
The speaker recognizes the beauty of the world now that "Winter is worn" and "Each care decays," but they're unable to actually enjoy any of the "pleasant things" that now surround them. The speaker remains miserable: their "sorrow springs," blooming like the flowers that now fill the countryside. The speaker's heartache prevents their own worries from fading away along with winter's cold, and the beauty of the season makes the speaker's pain stand out more clearly.
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Literary and Historical Context of “Description of Spring”
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Literary Context
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey was a poet and nobleman who served in the court of Henry VIII. He was born in either 1516 or 1517 and met an untimely end in 1547.
Together with his friend and fellow courtier Sir Thomas Wyatt, Howard introduced the sonnet form into the English language. Howard is credited with developing the couplet ending now inextricably linked with English sonnets (and which is on display here in "Description of Spring"). Though the form is commonly called the "Shakespearean sonnet," Howard's work actually predates that of the Bard (Shakespeare would, of course, go on to make such poems enduringly popular).
Both Howard and Wyatt were greatly inspired by the 14th-century Italian poet Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca). Indeed, many of their sonnets are loose translations of Petrarch's poems. "Description of Spring" is no exception, taking its cues from "Zefiro torna (CCCX)." Howard's version makes a number of drastic changes, doing away with references to classical mythology and the spiritual realm. The poem was published in the first printed English-language poetry anthology, Tottel's Miscellany (1557).
Historical Context
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, lived and died under the rule of the notorious English king Henry VIII. His life was colorful, sometimes violent, and always eventful. Howard's father was next in line to throne, failing Henry VIII's infamous efforts to produce a male heir. Howard was also first cousin to Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard, both of whom were beheaded by the king.
The court was a place of romantic intrigue in Howard's day, and numerous poems of the era present sex and love as a kind of power game not unlike those taking place at the political level. Poetry also played an important role in political life at the English court. Courtiers would recite poems to win favor from the king and to express personal and political grievances indirectly. This was an important and difficult project during Henry VIII's reign: he was a famously difficult and moody king who often lashed out against those who served him. As a result, court life, though lavish, could be quite dangerous. In fact, Henry Howard has the dubious honor of being the last person to be executed on the instruction of Henry VIII, having been found guilty of treason.
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More “Description of Spring” Resources
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External Resources
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The Petrarchan Original — Check out the poem that inspired "Description of Spring."
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Howards Biography — Learn more about Howard's life and work via the Poetry Foundation.
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Tottel's Miscellany — Explore the first English-language poetry anthology, which includes poems by Henry Howard.
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The Tudor Court — Learn more about life in the court of Henry VIII, a world of suspicion, plotting, danger, and lust.
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