The Full Text of “The Widow's Lament in Springtime”
1Sorrow is my own yard
2where the new grass
3flames as it has flamed
4often before but not
5with the cold fire
6that closes round me this year.
7Thirtyfive years
8I lived with my husband.
9The plumtree is white today
10with masses of flowers.
11Masses of flowers
12load the cherry branches
13and color some bushes
14yellow and some red
15but the grief in my heart
16is stronger than they
17for though they were my joy
18formerly, today I notice them
19and turn away forgetting.
20Today my son told me
21that in the meadows,
22at the edge of the heavy woods
23in the distance, he saw
24trees of white flowers.
25I feel that I would like
26to go there
27and fall into those flowers
28and sink into the marsh near them.
The Full Text of “The Widow's Lament in Springtime”
1Sorrow is my own yard
2where the new grass
3flames as it has flamed
4often before but not
5with the cold fire
6that closes round me this year.
7Thirtyfive years
8I lived with my husband.
9The plumtree is white today
10with masses of flowers.
11Masses of flowers
12load the cherry branches
13and color some bushes
14yellow and some red
15but the grief in my heart
16is stronger than they
17for though they were my joy
18formerly, today I notice them
19and turn away forgetting.
20Today my son told me
21that in the meadows,
22at the edge of the heavy woods
23in the distance, he saw
24trees of white flowers.
25I feel that I would like
26to go there
27and fall into those flowers
28and sink into the marsh near them.
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“The Widow's Lament in Springtime” Introduction
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Published in 1921 in the collection Sour Grapes, "The Widow's Lament in Springtime" is a study of grief and loss. Its speaker, recently widowed after 35 years of marriage, describes a springtime scene whose cheerful abundance contrasts with her "Sorrow." Neither the blooming of flowers nor the presence of her son seems able to console her. As she entertains a suicidal fantasy involving flowers, the poem suggests that some pain may be too deep for time or beauty to heal.
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“The Widow's Lament in Springtime” Summary
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I feel depressed by my lawn, where fresh grass grows rapidly and vividly. It's grown this way many times in the past, but it's never made me feel the mixture of pain and numbness I feel this year. My late spouse and I lived together for 35 years. Today, the plum tree is covered in clusters of white flowers. Clusters of flowers weigh down the boughs of the cherry trees and grow yellow and red on some shrubs, but the sorrow I feel outweighs them—since, while they used to make me happy, today I see them and look away, ignoring them immediately. My son mentioned today that, in the fields bordering the big forest on the horizon, he noticed trees blooming white. I feel the desire to walk out there, collapse into the blooms from the trees, and drown in the nearby bog.
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“The Widow's Lament in Springtime” Themes
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Loss, Grief, and Despair
"The Widow's Lament in Springtime" is a portrait of grief and despair. Its speaker, a woman whose husband has died after 35 years of marriage, feels his loss acutely during the first springtime after his death. As a result, she no longer takes joy in the blossoming trees and flowers she used to love. Rather than cheering her up, in fact, the spring flowers feature in her thoughts of suicide: she imagines "sink[ing] into the marsh near them." The poem starkly illustrates how grief can rob the grieving of their ordinary pleasures, draining their appetite for life—or even instilling them with a wish to follow their loved ones into death.
The speaker feels intense grief despite the beauty of the scenery around her. She begins the poem by saying that "Sorrow is my own yard," suggesting that grief is a kind of home for her now—a state she inhabits all day. Though she notices the beauty of the spring blossoms, "the grief in [her] heart / is stronger than they." Her own emotions outweigh any cheer the season might provide. She comments that the flowering trees and bushes "were [her] joy formerly," but this year she "notice[s] them / and turn[s] away forgetting." Her grief is so great that the flowers no longer delight her or even make much of an impression at all.
The poem thus suggests that nothing can compensate for the widow's loss, and by extension, that some grief is too great for easy healing. When the widow's son points out "trees of white flowers" in the distance, she imagines "sink[ing] into the marsh near them." Symbolically, this image conveys that she is completely bogged down by grief. The mention of her son shows that she hasn't lost everything: she does have surviving family, a legacy that she and her husband created together, and so on. Yet even her son's presence seems to bring her no comfort. His mention of the flowering trees may be meant to console her, but it only fills her with despairing thoughts.
The poem does not indicate that the woman actually succumbs to despair or harms herself. But it provides no consolation, either: it ends with an image of absolute grief. The widow feels no joys or pleasures, even amid the natural beauty she normally loves; the only thing she "feel[s] that [she] would like" is to follow her husband into death and become part of nature with him. The painful reality of death, the poem suggests, can take over a mourner's whole life.
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Nature's Beauty and Indifference
The speaker of the poem grieves her husband while a beautiful springtime scene unfolds around her. The juxtaposition is unsettling: the sorrow she feels proves that nature's yearly renewal doesn't heal everything or comfort everyone. In fact, the beauty of spring now strikes the widow as "cold"—reflecting her own emotional withdrawal, perhaps, but also the world's indifference to her suffering. Impressive as it is, the blooming scenery shows how nature doesn't share or respect human emotions: it causes life and death alike as part of the same cycle, and moves on immediately after human loss.
The widow's descriptions suggest not only that she's indifferent to nature's beauty but also that nature is indifferent to her pain. She describes the "new grass flam[ing] as it has flamed / before," but with a "cold fire" that "closes round [her] this year." This paradoxical language implies that the natural world still seems vivid, like fire, but leaves her feeling cold—and is cold toward her. (Notice that she views this cold as an active, external force, surrounding and enclosing her, rather than an internal feeling she's projecting onto her surroundings.)
The widow also juxtaposes her harsh personal reality with the impersonal splendor of nature, suggesting that the one has no effect on the other. For example, she follows the statement "Thirtyfive years / I lived with my husband" with the statement "The plumtree is white today / with masses of flowers." The plum tree continues to blossom despite her personal tragedy and, the poem implies, would blossom no matter what happened to her.
The contrast between the widow's misery and nature's beauty illustrates how nature operates independently of human emotions and preferences. The widow notices that "Masses of flowers / load the cherry branches" and the "bushes." Another speaker might find these vibrant flowers consoling, as if nature were paying tribute to the dead, or redemptive, as if life were compensating for death.
Here, however, they seem to have nothing to do with the speaker, or she with them. She "turn[s] away" from them, mirroring the way nature has turned away from her grief and moved on in spite of her. The widow's fantasy of "fall[ing] into those flowers / and sink[ing] into the marsh near them" reinforces this idea. The beauty of the flowers won't stop her from sinking into despair, or even death. Nature is perfectly capable of containing vibrant life and tragic death at the same time, and even within the same scene.
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Widow's Lament in Springtime”
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Lines 1-6
Sorrow is my own yard
where the new grass
flames as it has flamed
often before but not
with the cold fire
that closes round me this year.Lines 1-6 introduce the poem's speaker, whom the title identifies as a "Widow" grieving in "Springtime." (A "Lament" is an expression of grief or sorrow.) The widow's gender, age, personal circumstances, etc. differ from those of William Carlos Williams, so this is a dramatic monologue: a poem whose speaker is a character separate from the poet.
These opening lines don't say who or what the widow is lamenting; that information is withheld until lines 7-8. Instead, they focus on her experience of "Sorrow." She begins with the statement "Sorrow is my own yard," which suggests both that her yard makes her sad and that, metaphorically, sadness is like her own yard. In other words, it's a state so familiar that it seems to belong to her, like a piece of private property.
She goes on to describe her literal yard in more detail. Metaphorically, the bright, quickly-growing "new grass" spreads like fire, or "flames," over the yard. It's a familiar sight—"it has flamed / often before"—but the widow's response has changed "this year." This year, she experiences the sight, and perhaps the feel, of the grass growing around her as a "cold fire / that closes round."
The oxymoronic phrase "cold fire" could suggest that the grass looks like flames but feels cold to the touch. However, it seems to have more to do with the widow's emotions. Perhaps her emotional response to the grass—or the springtime in general—feels like a mix of passion and detachment, or pain and numbness.
Here and throughout the poem, the free verse is chopped into short, heavily enjambed lines, which suggest that the widow speaks with a halting or short-winded rhythm. At the same time, these first six lines form a run-on sentence. Perhaps, then, this is a speaker who has a lot to say, but who has some difficulty getting the words out, due to strong emotion or other factors.
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Lines 7-10
Thirtyfive years
I lived with my husband.
The plumtree is white today
with masses of flowers. -
Lines 11-16
Masses of flowers
load the cherry branches
and color some bushes
yellow and some red
but the grief in my heart
is stronger than they -
Lines 17-19
for though they were my joy
formerly, today I notice them
and turn away forgetting. -
Lines 20-24
Today my son told me
that in the meadows,
at the edge of the heavy woods
in the distance, he saw
trees of white flowers. -
Lines 25-28
I feel that I would like
to go there
and fall into those flowers
and sink into the marsh near them.
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“The Widow's Lament in Springtime” Symbols
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Flowers
The poem is chock full of flowers: the word itself occurs at the end of four separate lines, and many other lines relate to flowers in some way. Flowers are symbols of springtime, and, in turn, of renewal after death or deprivation (traditionally symbolized by winter). They are also common symbols of love, though they can be associated with death as well (as in the case of funeral flowers).
The flowers in the poem seem to carry all these associations. The speaker is grieving her husband of 35 years. The abundant blossoms may serve as painful reminders of their love, of his death and funeral, or both. (In fact, the clumps of flowers are twice described as "masses," a word that may be meant to evoke the Christian funeral ceremony known as a requiem mass.) These flowers also represent springtime healing and renewal, contrasting sharply with the widow's continued sense of loss.
The color of the flowers is important, too. In many cultures, flowers are traditional symbols of innocence, purity, and/or peacefulness. For this reason, they often feature in both weddings and memorial ceremonies. It's no accident that the widow segues abruptly from mentioning her husband to mentioning white flowers (lines 7-10), or that white flowers figure in her suicidal thoughts (lines 25-28). Consciously or unconsciously, she seems to associate white flowers, in particular, with marriage and death.
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“The Widow's Lament in Springtime” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Repetition
The poem repeats a number of key words, sometimes with variations, as a way of underscoring its main images, symbols, and themes. A few examples:
- The near-repetition of "flames" and "flamed" (line 3) reinforces the meaning of lines 2-4: the "new grass," spreading like flames over the yard, returns year after year.
- The near-repetition of "year" and "years" (lines 6-7) highlights the passage of time in the poem, as well as the contrast between the speaker's feelings in former "years" versus "this year."
- The poem mentions a "plumtree" in line 9 and "trees" in line 24, suggesting that trees grow thickly in this landscape (which appears to be fairly rural).
- The repetition of "flowers" (lines 10, 11, 24, 27, each time at the end of a line) conveys the sheer abundance of the springtime flowers, and perhaps suggests that, to the grieving widow, they seem excessive or overwhelming. "White" flowers are mentioned twice, hinting at possible color symbolism. (White flowers are often associated with both weddings and funerals, for example. See the Symbols section for more.)
- The repetition of the phrase "masses of flowers" at the end of line 10 and the start of line 11 (an example of the device anadiplosis) again conveys the teeming abundance of the flowers. It may also point to a play on words, as masses can also refer to Christian religious ceremonies, including funeral ceremonies.
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Juxtaposition
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Enjambment
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Metaphor
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Imagery
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"The Widow's Lament in Springtime" 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.
- Lament
- Flames/Flamed
- Plumtree
- Masses
- Marsh
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A poem, song, speech, etc. expressing sorrow or grief.
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Widow's Lament in Springtime”
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Form
The poem consists of a single stanza of free verse. Though it doesn't have a meter, it's broken into short lines that don't vary too much in length. The syllable count per line ranges from three (line 26) to nine (line 18) and mostly stays in the middle of that range.
The poem doesn't have a rhyme scheme, either, but it does repeat the word "flowers" at the end of four different lines (lines 10, 11, 24, and 27), in what might be described as an identical rhyme. Similarly, the words "year" and "years" fall at the end of lines 6 and 7, respectively, and "them" ends lines 18 and 28. However, these are much subtler effects than traditional end rhyme.
These formal choices shape the poem's meaning in a variety of ways. The short lines give the impression that the widow, in her "Sorrow," is speaking slowly and with great effort. Free verse allows the dramatic monologue to unfold naturally and conversationally rather than sounding stylized and "poetic." (Williams used free verse throughout his career, often in an effort to capture the natural rhythms of American speech.)
The recurring words, meanwhile, help underline the poem's central images and themes. For example, the repetition of "flowers" draws constant attention to the springtime abundance that seems to heighten the widow's sense of loss. Even the repeated word "them" refers to flowers both times, suggesting that the widow can't help but notice the flowers constantly—even as she claims to "forget[]" them immediately (line 19).
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Meter
As a free verse poem, "The Widow's Lament in Springtime" has no meter. However, its lines are chopped into roughly even lengths (mostly four to seven syllables). Combined with near-constant enjambment, these short lines make the widow's speech sound halting, as if she's speaking with great effort through her pain. In other words, the line breaks mirror the way she's been emotionally broken up by grief.
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Rhyme Scheme
The poem is written in free verse, so it has no rhyme scheme. Williams was known for his innovative and experimental use of free verse, which he saw as a way of departing from traditional European forms and establishing a distinctively American style of poetry.
However, four lines in the poem (lines 10, 11, 24, and 27) end with the same word: "flowers." (Similarly, the word "them" appears at the ends of lines 18 and 28, both times referring to flowers.) This repetition, which could be classified as identical rhyme, helps convey the sheer abundance of the springtime flowers. Their vitality and abundance contrast poignantly with the widow's listlessness and loss.
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“The Widow's Lament in Springtime” Speaker
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The poem is a dramatic monologue, meaning that its speaker is a character separate from the poet. The title identifies this speaker as a "Widow" grieving in the "Springtime." She has lost her husband after "Thirtyfive years" of marriage (or of living together, at least—see lines 7-8) and is now facing her first spring without him. "This year," unlike in previous years, the rebirth of grass, flowers, and so on leaves her numbly indifferent, as if a "cold fire" is "clos[ing] round" her (lines 5-6).
In other words, she's too depressed and "Sorrow[ful]" to enjoy the season: "the grief in [her] heart / is stronger than" the natural splendor around her (lines 1 and 15-16). She hasn't lost all her close family: she still has a "son," who describes some "trees of white flowers" he's seen, perhaps in an attempt to lift her spirits (lines 20-24). However, she remains inconsolable. The final lines of the poem (lines 25-28) describe her wish to "sink into [a] marsh": an expression of deep melancholy and possibly suicidal despair.
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“The Widow's Lament in Springtime” Setting
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The poem takes place in and around the speaker's "own yard," in a rural or suburban setting full of "trees" and "flowers" (lines 10, 11, etc.). As the title indicates, the season is "Springtime." Although "Sorrow is my own yard" (line 1) may be partly a metaphor, it also suggests that the speaker's literal yard, with its abundance of blooming plant life, is causing her sorrow.
The landscape surrounding the speaker includes "grass" (line 2), at least one "plumtree" (line 9), at least one "cherry" tree (line 12), "bushes" with "yellow" and "red" flowers (lines 13-14), "meadows" (line 21), "woods" that include "trees of white flowers" (lines 22-24), and a "marsh" near the woods (line 28). Overall, the description suggests a beautiful countryside—one that the speaker's grief prevents her from enjoying.
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Literary and Historical Context of “The Widow's Lament in Springtime”
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Literary Context
“The Widow's Lament in Springtime" appears in the collection Sour Grapes (1921). This volume features several of William Carlos Williams's most frequently anthologized poems, including "Queen-Ann's-Lace" and "The Great Figure."
The poem's springtime setting also anticipates Williams's most groundbreaking book, Spring and All (1923), published two years later. The prose sections of Spring and All provide a kind of manifesto for Williams’s poetry. Throughout, he praises the imagination and the power of language to create the world anew, rather than simply describe it. He writes at one point: "To refine, to clarify, to intensify that eternal moment in which we alone live there is but a single force—the imagination.” The best-known poems from this collection, including Poem I ("Spring and All (By the road to the contagious hospital)") and Poem XXII (a.k.a. "The Red Wheelbarrow"), exemplify Williams’s distinctive style, with its intense focus on concrete images.
Williams was a leading poet of modernism, an early 20th-century movement that encouraged experimentation across a variety of arts and genres. Modernist poets rejected what they saw as the sentimentality of 19th-century Romantic and Victorian poetry in favor of a more objective style. Largely abandoning rhyme and meter in favor of free verse, they sought to portray their contemporary world through new forms of poetic expression.
Williams was initially associated with Imagism, a movement in American and European poetry that favored clear, precise language and sharp, powerful images. An early champion of this movement was the American modernist Ezra Pound, who helped Williams get published and heavily influenced his early poetry. Though Williams later abandoned the movement, its principles continued to influence his style.
Historical Context
“The Widow's Lament in Springtime” appeared in 1921, a few years after World War I (1914-1918). Those who lived through the war had witnessed death and destruction on an unprecedented scale. Additionally, the "Spanish flu" pandemic had killed millions of people, including an estimated 500,000 to 850,000 Americans, between 1918 and 1920. This memory would have been fresh in the minds of Williams and his contemporaries.
The widow in the poem never explains her husband's cause of death. Illness is certainly a possibility (as is the war, if he was an older veteran who married young), but it's impossible to say for sure. Regardless, the poem appeared at a time when the world was grappling with mass death events and their resulting "Sorrow."
One poem that captured the ethos of this dark time was T.S. Eliot’s "The Waste Land," published in December 1922. Instantly hailed as a modernist masterpiece, the poem remains celebrated for its challenging, elusive style and grim outlook on the state of civilization. "The Widow's Lament in Springtime," published a year before Eliot's poem, shares its mournful attitude, as well as its insight into the way springtime can depress the grieving. ("The Waste Land" famously begins: "April is the cruellest month, breeding / Lilacs out of the dead land.") By contrast, Spring and All, published months after "The Waste Land," is in many ways a reaction against Eliot's bleakness. Whereas Eliot's poem pessimistically depicts the world’s harsh realities, Spring and All holds out the possibility of recovery and renewal.
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More “The Widow's Lament in Springtime” Resources
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External Resources
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A Williams Documentary — Watch a film about William Carlos Williams from the USA: Poetry documentary series.
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WCW on Film — A documentary about Williams from the Voices and Visions series.
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An Introduction to the Poet — A brief introduction to Williams's poetry, including "The Widow's Lament in Springtime."
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The Poem Aloud — Listen to Williams reading "The Widow's Lament in Springtime."
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The Poet's Life and Work — A brief biography of William Carlos Williams, courtesy of Poets.org.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by William Carlos Williams
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