An aging speaker walks through an April still sharp with cold, feeling out of step with the season. He calls out to a “flower god,” half playful, half desperate, as if the myth itself might warm him. Almost reluctantly, his attention shifts from his own greyness to what’s happening around him: spring arriving not gently but with a bound, a deliverer that floods the woods with song and stitches daisies into the meadows. The poem pivots on a memory of childhood, where happiness was uncomplicated and earth felt like a mother, generous with scents and hidden music. The speaker isn’t just watching spring—he’s letting it perform on him. In the final lines, one imagined touch of a bow across strings, one breath of new green, is enough to jolt his body into a sharp, almost surprising ecstasy. The mood is bruised hope catching fire, a quiet ache suddenly released into vivid, physical joy.
Flower God, God Of The Spring — Summary
FLOWER god, god of the spring, beautiful, bountiful, Cold-dyed shield in the sky, lover of versicles, Here I wander in April Cold, grey-headed; and still to my Heart, Spring comes with a bound, Spring the deliverer, Spring, song-leader in woods, chorally resonant; Spring, flower-planter in meadows, Child-conductor in willowy Fields deep dotted with bloom, daisies and crocuses: Here that child from his heart drinks of eternity: O child, happy are children! She still smiles on their innocence, She, dear mother in God, fostering violets, Fills earth full of her scents, voices and violins: Thus one cunning in music Wakes old chords in the memory: Thus fair earth in the Spring leads her performances. One more touch of the bow, smell of the virginal Green - one more, and my bosom Feels new life with an ecstasy.