2 quotations linked to The First Spring Day — Christina Rossetti by or associated with Christina Rossetti, with source notes, explanations and related topics.
Nature, doubt, memory, hope, delayed spring, grief and explicitly religious hope for renewal in this world or the world to come.
Use these links when you want to inspect the wording in its wider work or edition.
“The sap will surely quicken soon or late, The tardiest bird will twitter to a mate.”
After earlier doubt, the poem turns to seasonal signs that arrive at different speeds, using delayed spring as an image of hope that can outlast uncertainty.
Source note: “The First Spring Day,” Project Gutenberg #16950. The stanza continues into explicitly spiritual hope about renewal in this world or the world to come.
“So Spring must dawn again with warmth and bloom, Or in this world, or in the world to come.”
The speaker insists on eventual spring while leaving its fulfillment open between earthly renewal and a religious hope beyond this life.
Source note: “The First Spring Day,” Project Gutenberg #16950. The alternative 'world to come' makes the Christian eschatological dimension explicit.