The speaker watches early spring arrive in a northern landscape: snow pulls back from lakes, mist rises from warming streams, the ground is damp with reviving leaves, and willows open their green leaves under threatening clouds. The speaker returns to this spot, as if drawn there, and brings “new love” along. Together they notice white violets turning toward the sun.
The closing lines shift to the couple: winter was “frozen endurance,” a long season of waiting and dreaming of love across cold, trackless stars. The mood is tender and quietly joyful. The world is stirring back to life, and so is the speaker’s heart. The imagery feels soft, damp, and intimate—full of breath, mist, and touch—as if both the land and the relationship are waking after a long stillness.