Spring, the Sweet SpringWhat connotations could spring have? E.g Winter – death, misery, depression.If spring was a part of your life, what would it represent?If you related spring to a stage of love, what would it represent?

ToneJoy and excitement – celebrating the end of the cold and death and the arrival of warmth and opportunity.There is also a certain nostalgia too it, with the lingering on the thoughts with pausing in virtually every line.Spring, the sweet spring, is the year’s pleasant king,Then blooms each thing, then maids dance in ring,Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing:        Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-wee, to-witta-woo!The palm and may make country houses gay,Lambs frisk and play, the shepherds pipe all day,And we hear aye birds tune this merry lay:       Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-wee, to-witta-woo!The fields breathe sweet, the daisies kiss our feet,Young lovers meet, old wives a-sunning sit,In every street these tunes our ears do greet:       Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-wee, to-witta-woo!        Spring, the sweet spring!Thomas Nashe (1567-1601)AAABAAAAAABBC

ContextThomas Nashe (1567-1601)Nashe is most famous as a pamphleteer. an odd career that now would see him working for some Chinese restaurant or another. In Elizabethan times a pamphleteer was a bit more prominent as pamphlets were one of the most effective ways to spread ideas or news across the country. Nashe’s pamphlets were apparently pretty controversial in theme and his poetry also caused a bit of a stir, see if you can work out why!:And make me happie, stealing by degrees. First bare hir legs, then creepe up to her knees …“Unhappyie me,” quoth she, “and wilt not stand? Com, let me rubb and chafe it with my hand!”Do you really need to know this? No, but has it made you smile? No? Well, on with the relevant stuff then!This is a song from Thomas Nashe’s 1600 play Summer’s Last Will and Testaments, which was seen as an intellectual masterpiece (according to Wikipedia!). It is a pastoral play where the four seasons are personified and examined through different characters.Stop! Don’t rush out to read it or to the nearest performance – let’s just deal with the poem.

Spring, the Sweet SpringPause and repetition within the title indicates fondness for this season. Gentle and nostalgic as this really references our youth. Spring, the sweet spring, is the year’s pleasant king, Then blooms each thing, then maids dance in a ring, Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing: Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-wee, to-witta-woo!Elevating season by comparing it to royalty – contrast with summer which is described as ‘king of the world’ in the same piece of work. Summer may be higher, but ‘pleasant king’ seems calmer, more peaceful and happier. Stress free king? Imagery – a scene of rejoicing and beauty. As if all these images are joining together to rejoice the end of winter.Weather is just right – not too hot or cold.Repeated onomatopoeia to represent various bird song – reinforce cheery, sing song mood.

In the opening stanza Spring is crowned ‘the year’s pleasant king’, contrasted with Summer which is seen as ‘king of the world’. This suggests to me that while summer is rich, ripe and powerful, while Spring is not as powerful it is the most joyous and enjoyable time of year.Remember where this poem comes from – it is meant to represent human life. Thus his affection for the season is his way of communicating the joys of the season.‘Blooms’ suggest nature is at its most fresh and beautiful stage; ‘maids’ dancing show that people are joyful and celebrating the end of the cold of Winter (it is still cold, but it ‘doth not sting’ – chilly rather than unpleasant weather); and ‘pretty birds’ singing creates an idea of optimism and contentment for all elements of this pastoral world. This all seems focused on visual imagery.

The palm and may make country houses gay, Lambs frisk and play, the shepherds pipe all day, And we hear aye birds tune this merry lay: Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-wee, to-witta-woo!Palm and may are spring festivals. Spring is party month and everyone seems to be joyful, happy, musical and playful. The end of the struggle against winter.All nature shares man’s joy. United rural scene of celebration. Youth full of excitement and energy.If the country house represents the wealthy, then the shepherds represent the rural poor. Again all united in celebration. They add music to the party.Birds singing a recurring image. Auditory imagery dominates this second stanza.Country houses were the centres of rural communities and in spring everyone is merry.

Spring festivals – ‘palm and may’ – mean that the countryside seemed to be filled with joy in stanza two and new born lambs ‘frisk and play’ conveying a sense of energy, excitement and fresh spirit for everyone. Those birds keep on chirping happily and now are joined by shepherds becoming musically inspired too. Now we are being bombarded with the sounds of merriment and enjoyment.

The fields breathe sweet, the daisies kiss our feet, Young lovers meet, old wives a-sunning sit, In every street these tunes our ears do greet:        Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-wee, to-witta-woo!        Spring, the sweet spring!From the visual imagery in stanza one, the auditory in stanza two, to the smells of stanza three. Fresh grass and simple country flowers give us a fresh scent rather than an overpowering perfume.First clear connection with spring and youth. Young lovers represent romance. Connects with the youthful excitement and joy of all our images. I take this image to be one of nostalgia. Old wives sitting out in the gentle spring and remembering their youth. Everyone, everything and everywhere is celebrating. Youth, excitement and opportunity.‘Kiss’ helps emphasise the gentleness of this season. Returns to the opening line, but this time delivered alone and with an exclamation mark. As if in conclusion to his pleasant reminiscence.

Finally, we ‘breathe sweet’ scents of nature being reborn through fresh fields and daisies. This stanza also then makes a direct comparison between the season and love, tying Spring to when ‘young lovers meet’ and thus romance, the excitement of possibility and maybe even fertility. It concludes with an idea that the joy of Spring is not an isolated thing, but ‘every street’ seems alive with the music and joy of the season.

Language and techniquesHere it is all about imagery.Don’t be fooled into thinking that imagery is just about making you imagine how something looks, but it is about immersing you into the writer/poet’s world.Rich natural visuals of the ‘blooms’ on the trees, symbolising rebirth and beauty, are met with joyous human emotion expressed through the ‘maids [who] dance’ and the sounds of ‘shepherds pip[ing]‘ and birds singing showing the harmony between all aspects of the countryside. We are even challenged to imagine the freshness of the air when the ‘fields breathe sweet’.Mention the repetition of the final line in each stanza. Onomatopoeia makes us almost sing in the voices of the different birds (cuckoo, nightingale, lapwing and owl) as we read the poem and conveys the joy that this poem expresses throughout and ties to the season.You’ll sound very clever if you can also integrate sensible comment about the use of pathetic fallacy. ‘Young lovers meet’ ties the idea of the natural freshness and excitement of Spring with the first emotions of love or romance.

StructureRhyming is a big thing here and it’s pretty easy to explain why.You’ll notice that all the lines of each stanza, bar the last line, rhyme (sit is a half-rhyme…)! So simple. You may not have noticed that this rhyme also appears somewhere else in most lines:Stanza 1 – spring, king, thing, ring, sting, singStanza 2 – may, gay, play, day, aye (I’m fairly sure it’s meant to be pronounced in the same way here), layStanza 3 – sweet, feet, meet, sit (hmmm…), street, greetWhy? Remember this was originally a song in a play, so this simple rhyme helps with rhythm and to achieve a sing songy progression that is as cheerful as the content being covered.The repetition of the bird song both acts as a chorus and it fills the song/poem with joyful chirping the whole way through.Spring, the sweet spring, is the year’s pleasant king,Then blooms each thing, then maids dance in ring,Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing:        Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-wee, to-witta-woo!The palm and may make country houses gay,Lambs frisk and play, the shepherds pipe all day,And we hear aye birds tune this merry lay:       Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-wee, to-witta-woo!The fields breathe sweet, the daisies kiss our feet,Young lovers meet, old wives a-sunning sit,In every street these tunes our ears do greet:       Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-wee, to-witta-woo!        Spring, the sweet spring!Thomas Nashe (1567-1601)AAABAAAAAABBC

ToneJoy, contentment and excitement – celebrating the end of the cold and death and the arrival of warmth and opportunity.There is also a certain nostalgia too it, with the lingering on the thoughts with pausing in virtually every line.ThemesObviously nature, but also romantic love and mortality. Mortality may seem a bit strange, but there is a reflection on death through the sheer unadulterated joy of the season, without any worries or cares.Spring, the sweet spring, is the year’s pleasant king,Then blooms each thing, then maids dance in ring,Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing:        Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-wee, to-witta-woo!The palm and may make country houses gay,Lambs frisk and play, the shepherds pipe all day,And we hear aye birds tune this merry lay:       Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-wee, to-witta-woo!The fields breathe sweet, the daisies kiss our feet,Young lovers meet, old wives a-sunning sit,In every street these tunes our ears do greet:       Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-wee, to-witta-woo!        Spring, the sweet spring!Thomas Nashe (1567-1601)AAABAAAAAABBC