Seasons
The cyclical passage of the year (spring, summer, autumn, winter) as a recurring image of time's movement against which the speaker's emotional register is measured. The image extends across the catalogue from august and 'tis the damn season through Cardigan, Maroon, and the winter / spring movement of ivy itself. Distinct from Weather (meteorological conditions) and Flowers (what blooms) in centring on the season as a unit of cyclical time rather than on its weather or its growth.
Seasons carry the charge of cyclical change imposed from outside the speaker: a passage she cannot stop, accelerate, or refuse. Particular seasons hold particular registers: spring as feared or desired renewal, autumn as the moment a relationship begins or ends, winter as suspension, summer as the brief window in which something is possible.
Appears in 5 songs
“Gray November I've been down since July”
The progression of months, July, November, December, marks the speaker's sustained depression across seasons and structures the poem's temporal arc. Uncle Jerry reads the apostrophe to the months as the speaker addressing time as it passes her by.
“August slipped away into a moment in time”
August represents the finite window of possibility for a summer romance, the month itself becomes a container for the entire relationship, and its passing marks the relationship's end.
“The autumn chill that wakes me up”
Autumn functions as both the literal season and a metaphor for the grandmother's stage of life, the approach of death/winter. The chill marks both the physical sensation and the emotional awakening to mortality.
“Clover blooms in the fields Spring breaks loose, the time is near”
Spring represents rebirth, new life, and fertility, but its breaking 'loose' suggests it was imprisoned, unwanted, or feared. Uncle Jerry reads the passage of seasons (winter/snow to spring) as a telescoping of time and notes the unsettling quality of spring 'breaking loose, like someone was trying to keep it prisoner... somehow spring should remain in its grave.' Spring's arrival brings both hope and fear ('spring breaks loose, but so does fear').
“If I told you it was just a summer thing? I'm only seventeen, I don't know anything”
Summer operates as the season of the transgression, the affair with August was 'just a summer thing,' bounded by the season. Angela & Uncle Jerry discuss how 'summer thing' versus 'summer fling' is a deliberate adolescent word choice, and Uncle Jerry notes this is part of the broader trope of 17-year-old summer love that has been written about 'for as long as there have been young lovers.'