Desire for Spring

https://stonesoup.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Poetry-Soup-Episode-17.MP3.mp3   Hello, and welcome to Poetry Soup! I’m your host, Emma Catherine Hoff. Today, I’ll be talking about “Desire for Spring,” by Kenneth Koch. Kenneth Koch was born on February 27, 1925, in Cincinnati, Ohio. He went to school at Harvard University and became close with the poet John Ashbery (who was featured in the very first episode of Poetry Soup!). He became a member of the New York School of Poets, a group of poets (some of whom lived in New York) that Ashbery was also a part of. Koch taught poetry at Columbia, but in addition to poetry, he wrote books on how to write poetry, as well as many plays. Many of his poems are humorous and slightly absurd (he also has plays in verse that are very similar). As you will see in “Desire for Spring,” Koch often uses exclamation points in his poems as well, to create a high spirited, energetic tone that is common in much of his work. Koch was a recipient of the Glasscock Prize. He also won the Bollingen Prize for his collection of poetry, “One Train.” Kenneth Koch died in 2002. Here in New York, spring is swiftly blossoming, so I think this poem echoes the sentiments of many people, including myself. Winter has been here for so long that we feel we need to push it out of the way to make space for the gentle flowering and warmth of spring. A very lyrical poem, “Desire For Spring,” as shown by the title, is very fitting for this time. Calcium days, days when we feed our bones! Iron days, which enrich our blood! Saltwater days, which give us valuable iodine! When will there be a perfectly ordinary spring day? For my heart needs to be fed, not my urine Or my brain, and I wish to leap to Pittsburgh From Tuskegee, Indiana, if necessary, spreading like a flower In the spring light, and growing like a silver stair. Nothing else will satisfy me, not even death! Not even broken life insurance policies, cancer, loss of health, Ruined furniture, prostate disease, headaches, melancholia, No, not even a ravaging wolf eating up my flesh! I want spring, I want to turn like a mobile, In a new fresh air! I don’t want to hibernate Between walls, between halls! I want to bear My share of anguish of being succinctly here! Not even moths in the spell of a flame Can want it to be warmer as much as I do! Not even the pilot slipping into the great green sea In flames can want less to be turned to an icicle! Though admiring the icicle’s cunning, how shall I be satisfied With artificial daisies and roses, and wax pears? O breeze, my lovely, come in, that I mayn’t be stultified! Dear coolness of heaven, come swiftly and sit in my chairs! In the first three lines of his poem, Koch mentions days that feed people with nutrients. You could interpret these days as three seasons (winter, fall, and summer). But none of these seasons or nutrients are enough for Koch. He wants something that will feed his heart, not just his health. Spring can give him this, so he spends the entire poem hoping that it will come. Nothing, not even the most terrible things that could cause anyone to give up (like the diseases Koch mentions) can quell his hope for spring. He cannot be satisfied by simple human things – only by nature, by the irresistible curve of the seasons into spring. With his flowing lines, Koch creates a sort of song for spring, while still showing his enthusiasm through a plethora of exclamation points. He also creates this excited feeling by using very specific, enticing similes – for example, he wants warmth more than even a moth (proving how powerfully he is drawn to the sun and the heat of spring, like a moth is drawn to a flame).  Koch demonstrates a fear of cold, a want for the warm weather of spring. He understands the other seasons, even admires them, but he needs the real spring rather than the fake fruits he talks about at the end of the poem. He needs fresh air, needs to have space to grow and stretch. In a way, he wants to go through the rejuvenation that the world experiences when spring comes. He wants to start anew, and to be gifted this ability by the cool, heavenly breezes of spring (“spreading like a flower/In the spring light, and growing like a silver stair”). Though the theme of the poem itself is pretty straightforward, it’s also important to look at the lines and the way the poem reads. As one long stanza, everything feels very connected. Because Koch uses them so often, the exclamation points don’t feel too sudden – they’re just part of the tone. Multiple lines use commas at the ends and in the middle to maintain a flow, just like a light wind or a flowing river. However, there are also multiple enjambed lines, echoing the feeling of the slow, kind of broken up progress of budding and sprouting. Overall, Koch’s poem is a playful ode to spring, a version of which seems to be in everyone’s minds this season. I hope you enjoyed this episode of Poetry Soup, and I’ll see you soon with the next one!