Sound & Sense Chapter 4

The Widow's Lament in Springtime written by William Carlos Williams (somewhat obviously) tells the story of a mourning widow. The widow discusses flowers that grow in her yard. She admits that her flowers used to bring her joy, but "the grief in [her] heart is stronger than [the flowers]" (15-16). She also shares that her husband has recently died: "Sorrow is in my own yard where the new grass flames as it has flamed often before but not with the cold fire that closes round me this year" (1-6). The widow's husband's death is correlated with her inability to enjoy her flower's. The grief she feels is overwhelming, and affects the way she views the simple joys in life. Spring is viewed as a period of freshness and new beginning, but the widow is still mourning the death of her husband. She does not want to move on and enjoy her life without her husband.

Flowers are often associated with funerals. As someone who clearly loved flowers, is it likely that the widow included an abundance of flowers in her husband's funeral. With a yard filled with "masses of flowers [that] load the cherry branches and color some bushes yellow and some red" (10-14), the widow is constantly reminded that her husband is dead. She is no longer able to enjoy her flowers because they are a symbol of her husband's passing. In the closing lines of the poem, the widow succumbs to her grief and admits that she would like to die in the flowers: "I feel like I would like to go there and fall into those flowers and sink into the marsh near them" (24-27). A peaceful death in her flowers would allow the widow to enjoy her flowers again. She would be surrounded by beauty at her time of death and know that she was dying to join her husband again.