The speaker can’t decide which kind of day hurts more when the person she loves is gone. On one hand, there are the long, grey, rainy days. The soft, lisping sound of the rain feels oppressive, and as lilac-colored dusk settles in, the fear creeps in that maybe he will never return. That uncertainty is a dull, persistent ache. On the other hand, spring arrives in a shimmer of blue and gold—perfect, sparkling weather that should be joyful. But that beauty only sharpens her pain, because she’s walking the same paths they once shared, now completely alone. Her heart feels physically torn apart. The poem doesn’t resolve the question; it just holds both kinds of suffering side by side. The overall mood is one of quiet, intimate sorrow, where even the loveliness of spring becomes a reminder of loss, and absence colors everything.
In Spring — Summary
I do not know which is worse when you are away: Long grey days with the lisping sound of the rain
And then when the lilac dusk is beginning to fall The thought that perhaps you may never come back again ;
Or days when the world is a shimmer of blue and gold, Sparkling newly all in the dear spring weather,
When with a heart that is torn apart by pain I walk alone in ways that we went together.