A love affair unfolds across the seasons in this lyric, which was meant to be set to music. At first, everything is vivid and joyful: green leaves, bright blossoms, glowing apples, and a thrush that sings merrily. The speaker recalls the spring moment he first saw his beloved — “O perfect vision of delight” — and the dove, a symbol of love, has golden wings. The mood is pure, soaring happiness, driven by the dancing refrain. Then, abruptly, winter arrives: the tree is grey with snow, the thrush’s song turns sad, and love is dead. The dove’s wings are broken, and the speaker lays it at his beloved’s silent feet. The final desperate cry — “Fond Dove, fond Dove return again!” — aches with loss and longing. The poem creates a sharp, almost unbearable contrast between the blossoming of love and the stillness of grief, the season change mirroring the fate of a heart. The shift hits hard because the song-like form stays, but every image turns cold. It’s a simple, devastating portrait of love’s fleetingness.
From Spring Days To Winter (For Music) — Summary
In the glad springtime when leaves were green, O merrily the throstle sings! I sought, amid the tangled sheen, Love whom mine eyes had never seen, O the glad dove has golden wings!
Between the blossoms red and white, O merrily the throstle sings! My love first came into my sight, O perfect vision of delight, O the glad dove has golden wings!
The yellow apples glowed like fire, O merrily the throstle sings! O Love too great for lip or lyre, Blown rose of love and of desire, O the glad dove has golden wings!
But now with snow the tree is grey, Ah, sadly now the throstle sings! My love is dead: ah! well-a-day, See at her silent feet I lay A dove with broken wings! Ah, Love! ah, Love! that thou wert slain - Fond Dove, fond Dove return again!