In Lizette Woodworth Reese’s “A Girl’s Song,” the speaker is overflowing with feeling—so much that she says she could sing, cry, or even lie down and die. It is spring, and she is in love, which makes her feel wildly alive and a little dramatic. Every part of the world seems arranged just for her. The wind exists to blow her to the end of the world, the flowers seem to give her strength to knock stars from the sky, and the rain could wash away the past so she can live entirely in this one bright hour. Even a pool becomes a mirror meant to show her how joyful a girl in love can be. The mood is ecstatic, restless, and youthful, full of exaggeration that captures how spring and first love can feel like a private, magical upheaval.
A Girl's Song — Summary
Oh, I would sing! Oh, I would cry! Oh, I would lay me down and die ! There is no lovely or strange thing I would not do this day in spring.
Why go the sighing winds unfurled? To blow me to the end of world. Why bud the flowers, except that I May pelt the stars out of the sky?
Why drips the rain its ancient way ? To blot out every yesterday, And gather time to this one hour, My golden thoughts its only dower.
Why curves the pool out in the grass? To make for me a looking-glass, Where I may see how glad a thing A girl in love this day in spring!