SPRING IN WAR TIME by SARA TEASDALE

They say spring is a lovely reminder of how beautiful change can truly be. But what if the
change causes more harmful than it already is? Teasdale wrote the poem to show that the
seasons will continue to pass despite whatever the situation is. She emphasized just how much
nature knows no mercy.

Sara Trevor Teasdale was an American lyric poet that was based in New York City.
During her childhood, she never get to spend with her peers as she got sick so easily. Due to
her loneliness she amused herself with stories and things that she made up. She even described
herself as “a flower in a toiling world”. Teasdale first poem was “Reedy’s Mirror” that was
published in local newspaper. She also published many other collections such as "Rivers to
the Sea", "Love Songs", "Flame and Shadow", "Dark of the Moon", "Stars To-night", and
finally, "Strange Victory". At the age of 48, Teasdale committed suicide and her poem “I shall
not care” was rumoured to be her suicide note.

Spring in War Time was published in 1917 and written during World War 1 where
everybody was stun over the vast numbers of casualties and long periods of prolonged fighting.
This social background puts this poem in an essential spot in history. This piece begins with
series of questions on why the spring continues to pass when the world is at war. Teasdale
talked about how the spring is distant yet coming all the same. Was not spring supposed to be
like the sun shining on the rain, and the rain falling on the sunshine? Spring should be anything
good.
Teasdale demonstrates how the essence of spring is relatively missing, potentially
because of the demise that has happened amid the war, supplanting the mellow and positive
undertone of spring of resurrection and life, with distress. In lines 3 to 5, she personifies the
spring and question the spring’s judgement asking it how it would allow itself to pass
regardless of the abominations of war and in the midst of sorrow and agony.

She utilizes the idea of time to make the illusion of weakness, scrutinizing the soldiers'
feelings to defend the nation and keep waging war. Time either moves quickly or slowly, but
it is time all the same, and even when human is unconscious, it keeps on ticking. Very much
like the spring, it waits for no one. Baldwin (n.d.) stated that;

Spring in War Time meant to show that while war is powerful and it seems like it
should stop the whole world in its tracks, it cannot. Fighting, and the problems of
humans, cannot stop the seasons from changing, grass from growing, or trees from
flowering.