¨Spring and Fall¨ Close Reading and Reaction

"Margaret are you grieving/ Over Goldengrove unleaving"

• The Speaker questions if Margaret is sad about the leaves falling off the trees
• The first thing i notice about this line is the word "unleaving." It sounds strange, like "undo" or "undress," but I'm pretty sure it's not a real word. 

"Leaves, like the things of man, you/ With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?"

• Basically saying Maragaret cares for leaves falling off tress the same amount she cares about humans (or human struggles)
• The phrase "can you?" seems very odd, it just hangs in the air, like someone got cut off, but it's phrased as an entire question.

"Ah! as the heart grows older/ It will come to such sights colder"

• Either that Margaret won't have as much sympathy for these kinds of things in the future, or just that she'll literally see colder sights (like cold weather)
• I noticed that rather than referring to Margret directly, the speaker says "the heart" which I think helps to build a larger connection to society

"By and by, nor spare a sigh/ Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;"

• Margret won't "spare a sigh" for the leaves falling in the future, even if tons of leaves from trees (wanwood) fall to the ground
• It's interesting that it's an adult speaking this to a child (or so I assume). I think it indicates a loss of innocence, since this child won't be caring about the small, seemingly insignificant things in the future, and will stop caring about things.

"And yet you will weep and know why"

• Margret will still cry in the future, but it won't be over leaves. 
• The "know why" and "will" kind of come together to sound like a command, or a "listen up" (like, I'm about to tell you why you will be crying). It could also just suggest Margret will be aware of why she feels upset.

"Now no matter, child, the name:/ Sorrow's springs are the same"

• Sorrow doesn't really change, it always comes for similar reasons, and doesn't have a
  "happy" spring time. Could also be saying that sorrow is similar forever, like everyone experiences the same sadness eventually, even if they call it something different
• The speaker is choosing to personify Sorrow, and give it possessions (Sorrow's springs) and makes it more than just a word.

"No mouth had, no nor mind expressed/ What heart heard of, ghost guessed:"

• You can't always describe the sadness you feel in your heart with words or thought. Not sure about the ghost part.
• It's creating this kind of melancholic mood, by saying sadness is unavoidable, but you may never be able to express it properly. Kind of philosophical?

"It is blight man was born for, / It is Margret you mourn for"

• Humans are made to experience sadness and not comprehend it, it happens to everyone. Margret is actually mourning for herself, since she's mourning the leaves dying, and it reflects the fact that humans will get old and die. Mourning the temporary nature of everything.
• The first thing I notice is that the speaker is using the phrase "It is," which kind of implies that what he's saying is an assertion, it's a fact.  I also notice that he references Margret in relation to herself, telling her she's mourning herself, which is strange. The phrase threw me off, making me think the speaker was addressing us, or a third party.

This was really challenging!!! It was frustrating trying to pick apart the poem and analyze it line by line, instead of reading the whole thing and just coming up with some sort of summary. Like sometimes I would have no idea what a line meant and just tried to piece together whatever made sense. Poetry is very hard for me to grasp immediately and understand easily, and yeah this activity was hard. I do think reading the poem like this can help you come up with a better overall theme, and gives you the evidence and analysis you need when arguing a point, instead of coming up with a point and then trying to figure out how to analyze the text to find good evidence.