If It Were Spring by Leonard Cohen | Poem Summary | Phoenix of literature

 

“If It Were Spring”

                          -    Leonard Cohen

REVERSING DEFORESTATION IS COMPLICATED;
 PLANTING A TREE IS SIMPLE
                                                -MARTIN O'MALLEY

The poem “If It Were Spring” was written by Leonard Norman Cohen. He was a Canadian poet, novelist, song writer and singer. He was mainly written on the themes of isolation, depression, sexuality, religion, politics, loss, death and romantic relationships. His important works are I’m Your Man, You Want It Darker, Live in London, Old Ideas, Famous Blue Raincoat, Death of a Ladies’ Man and Birds on the Fire. He received the Quebec Literary Competition Prize for his first novel The Favourite Game in1964. He got Canadian Author’s Association Literary Award for his poetry Book of Mercy, Governor General’s Award for his selected poems Refused in 1968 and etc…

This poem has written in the lament mood. It has thirteen stanzas and each stanza consists of four lines. Cohen use Mother Nature scolds human beings for his wrong deeds of cutting trees and deforestation which disturbs the Mother Nature and other living creatures, depends on her for their living. By the words of Nature we come to understand about the tree’s pain and suffering that they have come across because of human’s actions. The Nature also expresses how the change of season brings various differences among them. She wants a man to become a tree and face all the struggles that a tree would overcome.

The poet begins the poem If It Were Spring; Nature says that he (he refers to man or human beings) would kill a man during the spring season and turns him into leaves and hangs into the tree which is grown in the woods near the edge of the dune. A dune is a land which is composed of large area of sand and wind where the water level is very low and the small creatures use the trees as their house to protect them from hot rays of sun. The wind makes Eolian sound when it encounters with an obstacle. Likewise the wind would clash at the man who hangs in the tree and makes him part of wind’s song. Then the poet says, rain drops would hold on the leaves like tiny crystals and makes the leaves would bend because of the rain which falls directly on the trees. The leaves which newly grow on the top of the tree seems near to the sky and is like easily broken so he would bear the movement of that strength less branches and face the strong blowing wind.

Then the nature calls that man as a victim and asks him that he would grow season as she did (Here, she refers to the Mother Nature) which gives plenty of benefits to the humans and pleasant suitable environment to live under the magical spell of growth.  A splendid thing happened when a palm tree would grow because of the sunlight and rain water from the sky. They act as an instrument for the growth of the trees. But he would cut a tree within a second without thinking about the splendid process of its growth. She questions the man “What language the city will hear” after his death, people around him only express their sorrow and anguish for some days. But she will mourn everyday for her loss because it affects not only trees and also the next generations of all living creatures. Wherever she sees that she finds pens raised and the world waiting for him to hear the punishment for his misdeeds. Now, it is the time to pay back to him.

The fields and orchards shows that the spring is turning and face fall. She asks that man to look at them how it brings clustered fruits and flowers around her now. In the time of fall that she could hear the irrefutable voice of hunger which seems “Whispered, spoken, shouted” but no one can stop it. When the autumn season come that she “will spin a net” between man’s height and earth to hold his parts tight. When he become leaves, these are the struggles that he would face so she wants to “kill a man this week” before this week has gone and hang him to a tree without showing any mercy to him.