The widow’s Lament springtime by William Carlos Williams

Springtime and a “widow’s lament” are quite contradicting.  Springtime symbolizes new life and happiness, the opposite feelings evoked by the loss of a husband. Williams uses imagery to express the beauty of spring, possibly suggesting life after death.  She alludes to white objects such as the “plumtree” and “trees of white flowers”, two plants blossoming with the start of spring, which represents purity among new life. The focus on nature further accentuates the idea that there is new life after death and that life goes on. Choosing the colors yellow and red, Williams expresses the narrator’s confusion and anger towards her husband’s departing. Yellow symbolizes corruption, suggesting that his death was untimely and unjust while red correlates with her alarm that he is diseased.  Describing the new grass as “[flaming] as it had flamed” suggests the idea that hope, symbolized by green grass, is engulfed, leaving despair. Towards the end of the poem, this sense of despair turns into a peaceful form of nostalgia n which the narrator alludes to committing suicide by “[sinking] into the marsh”. She “[feels like [she] would like/ to go there in the “[distant]” future. The word choice suggests that she sees herself committing suicide in the horizon. The fact that her son told her about this could mean that her son is suicidal as well or that he is aware of the fact that his mom is sad and tries to give her a way out.  Although suicide is not a pretty, calm, nor peaceful action, the Williams makes it seem pretty and almost natural, for she would “sink” into the march, surrounded by white flowers, suggesting that her suicide would be just the overarching theme of spring makes gives the poem an appealing, nostalgic feeling, highlighted by the use of imagery about the nature blossoming during this time.