How we cite our quotes: (line)
Quote #1
"Spring" (title)
Already, the title has set us up with ideas of innocence. We hear spring and we think of new life: flowers and baby birds and first love. (OK, maybe that last one is just us.)
Quote #2
does so rinse and wring
The ear, (lines 4-5)
This rinsing and wringing, this making clean, also suggests innocence to us. Think about it: generally we associate sin with being dirty, and innocence with being pure and clean.
Quote #3
the racing lambs (line 8)
What's more innocent than a frolicking lamb? Their presence is like the final stamp on this scene that tells us: Certified Innocent.
Quote #4
A strain of the earth's sweet being in the beginning
In Eden garden – (lines 10-11)
The biblical story of the Garden of Eden is all about the loss of that original, ideal relationship between man, the rest of creation, and God. Innocence, for our speaker, is intricately bound up with his relationship with his creator and with the rest of creation.