Amy Lowell’s “Spring Dawn” feels like the memory of a dream slipping away. In the first part, the speaker describes a man dressed in a coat patterned with gold and red maple leaves, wearing two swords and carrying a peony lantern. He is vivid, almost romantic, like a figure from a Japanese print or a story. But then the speaker wakes: “There was only the blue shadow of the plum-tree / Upon the shoji.” Nothing of that bright figure remains except the cool shadow of a tree on the paper screen. The poem captures that strange moment between sleep and waking, when something felt intensely real turns out to be gone. The mood is quiet, wistful, a little lonely—full of color in the dream, but pale and still in the morning.
Spring Dawn — Summary
He wore a coat With gold and red maple leaves. He was girt with the two swords. He carried a peony lantern.
When I awoke. There was only the blue shadow of the plum-tree Upon the shoji.