Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Spring Carol” captures the rush of joy when winter melts away. The speaker’s spirit revives suddenly: gushing streams, a thrush in the woods, sunlight on meadows. He calls it “the gift of the tongues of the lea,” as if the landscape speaks a language his heart remembers. His ageing heart dances with the burns and sings with sparrows in the rain; he hears music in the silver-bellied clouds and rainy arrows. The song spreads beyond the fields to the town, where lovers and travellers pick it up. The world feels alive with pagan energy—“the earth is alive with gods”—and the speaker, after joining in all this green celebration, finally sits at ease, still hearing and singing the unending music of the meadows. The mood is light, open-hearted, and glad.
Spring Carol — Summary
WHEN loud by landside streamlets gush, And clear in the greenwood quires the thrush, With sun on the meadows And songs in the shadows Comes again to me The gift of the tongues of the lea, The gift of the tongues of meadows.
Straightway my olden heart returns And dances with the dancing burns; It sings with the sparrows; To the rain and the (grimy) barrows Sings my heart aloud - To the silver-bellied cloud, To the silver rainy arrows.
It bears the song of the skylark down, And it hears the singing of the town; And youth on the highways And lovers in byways Follows and sees: And hearkens the song of the leas And sings the songs of the highways.
So when the earth is alive with gods, And the lusty ploughman breaks the sod, And the grass sings in the meadows, And the flowers smile in the shadows, Sits my heart at ease, Hearing the song of the leas, Singing the songs of the meadows.