Diction In Spring

In “Spring” by Chloe Honum written in 2009, the speaker discusses her life and how she handles it. The poem is written in the style of elegy. This means that it “most frequently used to morn a death, concluding in consolation, and composed in ABAB quatrain in iambic pentameter”(confound). In the first set of 4 lines she describes how her mother’s attempted suicide changed the way she lived. The second set takes on how things change and get better. Then she talks how things stay the same for a while, but in the last she goes into how things all come back around to an end. Chloe’s poem “Spring” uses imagery, syntax, and diction to create a sense of the four seasons to describe the tremendous impact of her loss. Throughout the entire poem there
In line one she starts off by saying “Mother tried to take her life”, in this quote she refers to her mom as Mother which is a very cold and distant way to refer to one’s mom (Honum 1). She also in the first four lines uses very short sentences that give the tone of someone who is acting distant. This cold and distance syntax is what gives this stanza it winter theme. In the next stanza it goes to spring which symbolizes rebirth and moving forward. The diction used in lines 7-8 are the best example of this, because they say “Birds flew from the woods fingertips” here the word choice of woods meaning something dark and scary, as well as the fact that the birds are escaping from the woods represents getting through a horrible set back in life(Honum). The next stanza uses words like fruit, grass, and daisies which are all things associated with summer. She also uses a much longer sentence. Fall comes last and it talks about how quick things come and go like summer. “Unless it doesn’t stop, like moonlight which has no pace to speak of falling through the cedar limbs, falling through the rock”, this means that like moonlight not all things last forever that everything will eventually slip away(Honum