The speaker watches spring move across England, from Wear to Thames, and feels his heart leap—but not simply with joy. The new green and blossom are lovely, yet they also disturb him: they pry too deeply into the earth and stir old voices, as if every living thing carries its own dying within it. He realizes he is seeing himself in the landscape, a “grave perplexèd shadow” haunted by what he has been and can never be again. The mood is tender but unsettled, full of spring’s brightness edged with melancholy. He tries to shake off that self-conscious gloom and wants only to forget the shadow he casts between earth and light, losing himself in sun, blossom, and birdsong.
From Wear to Thames — Summary
Is it because Spring now is come That my heart leaps in its bed of dust? Is it with sorrow or strange pleasure To watch the green time's gathering treasure?
Or is there some too sharp distaste In all this quivering green and gold? Something that makes bare boughs yet barer, And the eye's pure delight the rarer?
Not that the new found Spring is sour.... The blossom swings on the cherry branch, From Wear to Thames I have seen this greenness Cover the six-months-winter meanness.
And windflowers and yellow gillyflowers Pierce the astonished earth with light: And most-loved wallflower's bloody petal Shakes over that long frosty battle.
But this leaping, sinking heart Finds question in grass, bud and blossom-- Too deeply into the earth is prying, Too sharply hears old voices crying.
There is in blossom, bud and grass Something that's neither sorrow nor joy, Something that sighs like autumn sighing, And in each living thing is dying.
It is myself that whispers and stares Down from the hill and in the wood, And in the untended orchard's shining Sees the light through thin leaves declining.
Let me forget what I have been What I can never be again. Let me forget my winter's meanness In this fond, flushing world of greenness.
Let me forget the world that is The changing image of my thought, Nor see in thicket and hedge and meadow Myself, a grave perplexèd shadow;
And O, forget that gloomy shade That breathes his cloud 'twixt earth and light ... All, all forget but sun and blossom, And the bird that bears heaven in his bosom.