Prairie Spring
By Willa Cather
Evening and the flat land,
Rich and sombre and always silent;
The miles of fresh-plowed soil,
Heavy and black, full of strength and harshness;
The growing wheat, the growing weeds,
The toiling horses, the tired men;
The long empty roads,
Sullen fires of sunset, fading,
The eternal, unresponsive sky.
Against all this, Youth,
Flaming like the wild roses,
Singing like the larks over the plowed fields,
Flashing like a star out of the twilight;
Youth with its insupportable sweetness,
Its fierce necessity,
Its sharp desire,
Singing and singing,
Out of the lips of silence,
Out of the earthy dusk.
Summary of Prairie Spring
- Popularity of “Prairie Spring”: Written by Willa Sibert Cather, this beautiful free verse poem first appeared in 1913 on the pages of her novel, O Pioneers! McClure’s Magazine published the novel along with this poem. Although it resembles the style of Walt Whitman, Cather has bedecked it with her own style. The poem presents how the prairie looks in the season of spring. The beauty of description leads to the reasoning behind the popularity of the poem.
- “Prairie Spring” As a Representative of the Excitement of Youth: The life on the prairie as given in this poem shows how spring comes and how it seems to the people. The poet beautifully describes the situation of the land when spring arrives. The evening is silent, rich, and somber. The earth is full of harshness as well as strength. However, amid this tiredness as well as emptiness, there is the excitement of the youths “Flaming like the wild roses.” This beauty and excitement continue as it is not only the necessity as well as the desire to sing and go out to enjoy spring on the prairie.
- Major Themes in “Prairie Spring”: The arrival of spring, the condition of the prairie, the enjoyment of youth in spring, and the prairie activities are major themes of the poem. As far as the situation of the prairie is concerned, it changes when the season changes and the earth becomes fertile again to give birth to life. However, it happens that the youth experiences not only the burgeoning excitement at the arrival of spring but also shows desire as well as the necessity for it. Therefore, the young people enjoy over this transformed condition of the prairie as it shows richness, strength, and silence. The metaphorical presentation of the jubilation of the youth shows how the poet sees this situation of the prairie and how the youths respond to this situation.
Analysis of Literary Devices Used in Prairie Spring
Willa Cather’s art lies in using literary devices coupled with her poetic writing. Some of the major literary devices in this poem are analyzed below.
- Anaphora: It shows the use of repetition of the words or phrases in successive verses, such as “Out of the” in the last two verses.
- Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line, such as the sound of /a/ in the last two words of “Evening and the flat land” and the sound of /i/ in “The toiling horses, the tired men.”
- Consonance: Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line, such as the sound of /g/ and /w/ in “The growing wheat, the growing weeds” and the sound of /t/ in “The growing wheat, the growing weeds.”
- Imagery: Imagery is used to make readers perceive things involving their five senses. Willa Cather used imagery in this poem, such as “Sullen fires of sunset, fading”, “Flaming like the wild roses” and “Singing like the larks over the plowed fields.”
- Metaphor: It is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between objects different in nature. The poet used the metaphors such as the earth that shows its strength and harshness like a man.
- Parallelism: It means a verse having equal parts or clauses in a verse or a sentence having an equal length. This poem shows the use of parallelism, such as “The toiling horses, the third men.” Both clauses comprise an equal number of words, showing parallelism.
- Personification: It means to attribute human emotions to inanimate objects, such as “unresponsive sky” or rich and silent land, or silence having lips.
- Simile: It means to show a direct comparison between things to clarify the meanings of the thing being compared. The poet used several similes, such as;
- Flaming like the wild roses,
- Singing like the larks over the plowed fields,
- Flashing like a star out of the twilight
- Symbolism: Symbolism is using symbols to signify ideas and qualities, giving them symbolic meanings different from the literal meanings. The poem shows symbols, such as land, soil, weeks, or wheat to show the situation of the prairie.
Analysis of Poetic Devices Used in Prairie Spring
Poetic and literary devices are the same, but a few are used only in poetry. Here is an analysis of some of the poetic devices used in this poem.
- Diction: It means the type of language. The poem shows good use of formal and poetic diction.
- Free Verse: It means to write poetry without any rhyme scheme or metrical pattern. This is a free verse poem.
- Stanza: A stanza is a poetic form of some lines. It is a single-stanza poem having nineteen verses.
- Tone: It means the voice of the text. The poem shows a bubbling, exciting and rich tone.
Quotes to be Used
The following lines are useful to quote when talking about the necessary things and desires.
Youth with its insupportable sweetness,
Its fierce necessity,
Its sharp desire,
Singing and singing,
Out of the lips of silence,
Out of the earthy dusk.