Depression before Spring — Summary

Written almost like a broken song, “Depression before Spring” turns the usual promise of spring into an absence. The rooster crows, but nothing—no queen, no resurrection of the season—answers. What should feel like awakening stays muted. The only vivid image is strange and ambivalent: the speaker’s blonde’s hair shines, then is compared to cow’s spittle threading the wind. Beauty is caught against something raw and bodily. The speaker calls out “Ho! Ho!” and imitates the rooster, yet the call brings back only emptiness: no answering dove-like “rou-cou-cou,” no queen in a green slipper. There is playfulness in the sounds, but the mood is one of stalled desire and waiting. The title’s “depression” feels less clinical than atmospheric: a low-pressure feeling before the world will not turn green.