Spring rides no horses down the hill,
But comes on foot, a goose-girl still.
And all the loveliest things there be
Come simply, so, it seems to me.
If ever I said, in grief or pride,
I tired of honest things, I lied:
And should be cursed forevermore
With Love in laces, like a whore,
And neighbours cold, and friends unsteady,
And Spring on horseback, like a lady!
The Goose-Girl
Analysis, meaning and summary of Edna St. Vincent Millay's poem The Goose-Girl
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This doesn’t seem all that suitable for infants to me. The image of Spring as the future queen, entering the year humbled as a lowly farm labourer is one we can all see for ourselves. And we can see her simple natural metamorphosis. But the dark yet gaudy alternative version of Whoring Love, Spring on a Horse etc is heady stuff for infants, as is the fate of Winter who will be stripped entirely naked, and placed in a barrel full of inward spikes, to be dragged around the streets by two white horses until she is dead. I think the images are wonderful, but quite adult. Maybe there is also an alusion to Edna’s open bisexuality and refusal to disguise it in her statement “If ever I said, in grief or pride,I tired of honest things, I lied” And that lie would bring on the awful curse of the dark alternative,
i think this is a wonderful poem! it will be awsome for the elementary school contest!
thanks!