May - Christina Rossetti

May - Christina Rossetti

This poem is deceptively simple. It is a highy contrived truncated sonnet of thirteen lines long.  Other than the loss of the last line, it conforms to the sonnet form closely, with a volta at the ninth line and a regular, tight, rhyme scheme (aabbccdd aabbb).  The loss of the last line to complete the form is a reflection of its theme, which is unfulfillment, or the fading of promise for the future. 

There is a mystery at the heart of the poem, but also an ambiguity.  The poet “cannot tell” the reader what has happened – “came to pass”.  It is not immediately clear whether this means “cannot” as in “I am not allowed to”, or “cannot” as in “I do not know”.  The opposition created by the phrase“But this I know…” (as in “I don’t know that but I do know this…), together with the slight variation in this repeated phrase at the volta, suggests the latter, which subtly changes the meaning of the whole.  It becomes not a knowing secret, that is being kept from the reader, but an expression of ignorance and bewilderment at what has happened.

I cannot tell you how it was;

But this I know: it came to pass

Upon a bright and breezy day

When May was young; ah, pleasant May!

As yet the poppies were not born

Between the blades of tender corn;

The last eggs had not hatched as yet,

Nor any bird forgone its mate.

The imagery is of promise and fulfillment.  The weather is sunny, but does not have the warmth of summer – it is still early May.  The exclamation “ah…!” expresses the poet’s pleasure at the promise May brings.  The corn in the fields has only just started to grow and the field poppies, which will bloom in autumn, cannot even be seen as yet.  The birds are still nesting, with eggs still in the nest, and the pairs of birds have not yet parted, which they do after nesting in summer.  The imagery is suggestive of incipient growth and promise of things to come – the warmth of summer, the fruitfulness of autumn, new life in the fledged birds, domestic happiness.  This suggests that the “it” of the first line is a feeling of hope for the future, maybe of love blossoming.  At the volta, this optimistic outlook changes.

I cannot tell you what it was;

But this I know: it did but pass.

It passed away with sunny May,

With all sweet things it passed away,

And left me old, and cold, and grey.

The opening phrase is repeated, with the variation from “how” to “what” – the poet still does not know “what” it was that she felt on that sunny day, “But” she does “know” that whatever it was, it went away (“passed away”) like a cloud passing in front of the sun.  In passing, it took all the sweet promise of the May day with it, leaving the day sunless and dark and her lifeless.  The contrast between the fruitful imagery of the octet and the increasing desolation of the sestet is conveyed by the subtle shift in meaning of the word “pass”, from “happened” to “passed away”; the intoning of “pass/passed/passed”; the rhyme of “was” and “pass”, and the final tercet’s rhyme of “May/away/grey”, which embodies the now hopeless future. 

As Rossetti says, she cannot, or will not, tell what it is that brought her such feelings of hope and promise for the future.  Maybe it was love.  All that she knows is that the feeling was fleeting, and that with its passing, she is left diminished.