Like a Roe Deer, When Spring Destroys

Poem by Pierre De Ronsard Collection First Book of LovesThemes LovePeriod 16th centuryArthur's analysis ↓

Like a roe deer, when spring destroys
The idle crystal of the gloomy frost,
To better browse the honeyed grass
Out of its woods with Dawn it flees,

And alone, and safe, far from dogs and noise,
Now on a hill, now in a valley,
Now near a stream hidden apart,
Free and frolicsome wherever its foot leads;

Of nets or bow its freedom has no fear,
Except when its life is struck,
By a murderous arrow crimsoned with its blood:

Thus I went without hope of harm,
The day when an eye on the April of my age
Shot a thousand arrows at once into my flank.

Pierre de Ronsard

Translation generated by Poésies 123 with assistance from the deepseek-chat artificial-intelligence model.

Text published on Poésies 123: https://www.poesies123.com/en/poem-like-a-roe-deer-when-spring-destroys-pierre-de-ronsard/

Arthur

Interpretation

Arthur's analysis

Most of this poem reveals to us, through a highly bucolic scene, the frolics of a roe deer in the wild. Free, carefree, and without fear, it rediscovers the woods and valleys that the end of winter delivers from the frost.

This scene, however, ends abruptly with a chance encounter with hunters, our animal being struck by an arrow that takes its life.

In the second part of the poem, Ronsard draws a comparison between the sudden and cruel death of the roe deer and the pains caused by love. The arrow then becomes that of love; the brutality of the shock, a thunderbolt; and death, the indifference of the beloved woman.

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