20 pages 40 minutes read

Song of a Second April

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1921

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Poem Analysis

Analysis: “Song of a Second April”

“Song of a Second April” opens with the speaker’s assertion that “April this year” (Line 1) is “not otherwise / Than April of a year ago” (Line 2). Although Millay offers minimal information about this speaker’s identity, she does reveal that the speaker yearns for the past, particularly a past, ambiguous relationship with the mysterious “you” (Lines 5, 17, 18) addressed multiple times. Accordingly, the yearning speaker constantly compares the present to the past, characterizing both Aprils as alike in their mutual disappointment. The springs of both years have been “full of whispers, full of sighs” (Line 3). April offers no new hopes to the speaker who can only sigh and consider past regrets and loss. In the first stanza, the speaker is initially too preoccupied with personal grief to even appreciate the beauty of springtime. Dismissive of what April has to offer, the speaker sarcastically describes the “dazzling mud and dingy snow” (Line 4), holdovers from the winter and spring’s gradually increasing temperatures.

The speaker’s description of the surroundings suddenly shifts near the first stanza’s conclusion, however. After noting the melting mud and snow, the speaker states, “Hepaticas that pleased you so / Are here again, and butterflies” (Lines 5-6). The sight of the returning hepatica flowers instantly reminds the speaker of the lost loved one, who delighted in the flowers. This pleasant memory jolts the speaker out of dissatisfaction with the surrounding world, allowing the speaker to notice April’s beauty for the first time. After seeing the flowers and making this connection with the past, the speaker immediately adds, “and butterflies” (Line 6), as if the speaker is suddenly aware of and appreciative of one’s surroundings.

In the second stanza, the speaker continues to observe nature and the stirrings of life in April. The speaker hears the “hammering” (Line 7) of people working “all day” (Line 7) and sees the “shingles [that] lie about the doors” (Line 8). As April brings spring and better weather, men, “merry at their chores” (Line 11), work to replace the shingles and repair the roofs damaged by the winter snow. While they work, their children are “earnest at their play” (Line 12) in the warmer weather. The people happily resume their ordinary lives and daily routines from before the winter, and even the animals return unbothered to their usual ways. The speaker hears the “taps” (Line 10) of the grey woodpecker that “bores” (Line 10) into trees from orchards “near and far away” (Line 9). Just as the people have recommenced their usual work, April brings back once again the sights and sounds of woodpeckers and butterflies.

The final stanza furthers the illustration of nature’s beauty during the spring. Depictions of “larger streams [running] still and deep” (Line 13) and “small brooks” running “noisy and swift” (Line 14) perpetuate the poem’s portrayal of nature coming alive and into right order again. This sense of order and purpose is reflected in the poem’s form and meter. Each of the three stanzas is a sestet with an ABABBA rhyme scheme and constant iambic tetrameter (see Literary Devices section). This precisely regulated rhythm and poetic structure complements the poem’s worldview, in which human beings, animals, and the natural world react in unison and adjust seamlessly to changes in the time of year.

This final stanza presents one last image of the speaker’s environment and characterizes all of nature as interconnected. Millay describes how both the streams and brooks “run” (Lines 13, 14), linking the two bodies of water with the repetition of the same word. Furthermore, Millay abandons punctuation near the poem’s conclusion, writing, “Noisy and swift the small brooks run / Among the mullein stalks the sheep / Go up the hillside in the sun” (Lines 14-16). The lack of any kind of end-stop punctuation in Line 14 or any punctuation in the middle of Line 15 blurs each line together and makes parsing the lines’ different ideas difficult. The use of repetition and the lack of punctuation allow for each individual image of loud brooks, mullein stalks and plants, sunny hillsides, and migrating sheep to cohere into one idyllic picture of springtime.

The poem’s concluding two lines once more shift to the tone of the first few lines. The speaker states, “[T]he sheep / Go up the hillside in the sun, / Pensively,—only you are gone, / You that alone I cared to keep” (Lines 15-18). The sight of the sheep “pensively” wandering instantly makes the speaker pensive too, and their thoughts drift back to the “only” thing that did not return with the spring. While these final lines offer minimal further insight regarding the identity of the speaker’s addressee and the nature of the relationship between the two, they do suggest that this ambiguous “you” was the dearest person to the speaker. This person “alone” was someone whom the speaker wished to “keep” and preserve through the many changes of life. Whether the two gradually parted over the years or whether they parted through death like many of the lovers in Second April (see Contextual Analysis section) is unclear, but for the speaker, the separation is clearly final. Unlike the butterflies, the hepaticas, the woodpecker, and the children playing together, the speaker’s loved one is lost forever and will not return with the changing of the seasons.

blurred text
blurred text
blurred text
blurred text
Unlock IconUnlock all 20 pages of this Study Guide

Plus, gain access to 8,800+ more expert-written Study Guides.

Including features:

+ Mobile App
+ Printable PDF
+ Literary AI Tools