Spring

POSTED MAY 17, 2023

Spring is the time of fertility and rebirth, a time of possibility and hope, a time of celebrations and milestone life events. A few of the works depicting Spring as seen through the eyes of writers, painters and composers as well as the science behind "spring fever".

Today

By Billy Collins

If ever there were a spring day so perfect,
so uplifted by a warm intermittent breeze

that it made you want to throw
open all the windows in the house

and unlatch the door to the canary's cage,
indeed, rip the little door from its jamb,

a day when the cool brick paths
and the garden bursting with peonies

seemed so etched in sunlight
that you felt like taking

a hammer to the glass paperweight
on the living room end table,

releasing the inhabitants
from their snow-covered cottage

so they could walk out,
holding hands and squinting

into this larger dome of blue and white,
well, today is just that kind of day.

From Aimless Love: New and Selected Poems by Billy Collins (2018)

While Vivaldi celebrated The Four Seasons, Tchaikovsky's The Seasons is a set of twelve short character pieces for solo piano by the Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Each piece is the characteristic of a different month of the year in Russia. Below is the fifth piece in the composition, "May - Starlit Nights.

Primavera, Sandro Botticelli (1482)

Probably created for the marriage of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco, (a cousin of the powerful Lorenzo Medici, in May, 1482, Primavera is an allegory of the arrival of Spring. Roman goddesses, gods, and other personages from Roman mythology populate the canvas.

Italian Renaissance.org describes them: "In the center is the Roman goddess, Venus. She is depicted as an idealized woman, slightly off-center, with her head tilted and gesturing to her right. Above her is a blindfolded cupid (her son)...To the far left, Mercury, the god of the month of May, has a staff which he may be using to usher away the winter clouds... The Three Graces, who appear to be involved in some type of dance, represent the feminine virtues of Chastity, Beauty, and Love....On the right side, we see another group of figures which includes that of Zephyrus, the west wind, about to take a nymph named Chloris. After he succeeds in taking her for his own, they are married and Chloris transforms into Flora, the Spring goddess. Here, Flora is depicted throwing flowers that have been gathered in her dress. This is a means of symbolizing both springtime and fertility."

Springtime in Giverny, Claude Monet (1890)

The French Impressionist Claude Monet created numerous paintings with Springtime as its title or subject. Here is one of his beloved home in Giverny in early spring with the trees just beginning to bud.

And nothiing says spring to the American sports fan like the start of the baseball season..."Well a-beat the drum and hold the phone...The sun came out today...We're born again, there's new grass on the field.."

Spring; Printemps, Alphonse Mucha (1890)

Part of his Seasons series, the painting is Alphonse Mucha's depiction of Spring. Mucha's nymph-like women set against the seasonal views of the countryside. In his four panels (which you can see here)at the Mucha Foundation website) , Mucha captures the moods of the seasons - innocent Spring, sultry Summer, fruitful Autumn and frosty Winter, and together they represent the harmonious cycle of Nature.

Below: the science behind 'spring fever'

Fact or Fiction?: "Spring Fever" Is a Real PhenomenonIs it salvation from winter that puts us in the mood for love or is there a biological basis for this flurry of psychological renewal and physical energy?

Sources: Italian Renaissance.org, Mucha Foundation,

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