P.B. Shelley says If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?

This line means that if winter is approaching and everything is dying then there is spring season ahead. Life is a cycle of death & birth. so if someone dies then he also takes a new birth. As winter(death) comes then spring(new life) is also there to give new birth.

Similarly, sorrow in life is followed by moments of pleasure. "If winter comes can spring be far behind" is a line that caters to a symbolic interpretation of a vicious-circle.

The coming of the winter can be understood with the coming of a tragic situation or the period of the season, in itself, can be compared to the period of waiting, agony and pain while the apprearence of the summer or spring can symbolize the return of the state of happiness or the start of the long awaited state of fulfillment.

I would like to explain this stance with relation to a few famous literary writings.

In the famous story, "The last Leaf", for example, Johnsy is sick and is waiting for her death - indeed a cold misfortune of life. But the entire situation twists with an irony in the end when she survives and instead of her the painter Behrman dies who was in fact her savior. The state of the character somehow signifies the fact that if an evil situation has befallen in one's life, the good news that is to be followed is not far behind.

The state of the narrator in the poem, 'Daffodils' by Ted Hughes is rather opposite although based in the same law. There used to be days where the narrator and his wife were happy in life where they used to collect daffodils and sell them (alghough he later regrets for having done so). That used to be during the season of spring - that indeed used to be the time of their happiness. But now with the death of his wife and loss of all his good times what remains is the winter of utter dissolution and melancholy. Here the poet feels his suffering to be nature's way of punishing him for what ever he had done in the past one of which is selling of the daffodils (symbolizing the goodness of his marriage) which he calls as "sacrilege".

Therefore, the line symbolizes the reciprocity of good and evil, fortune and misfortune and cause and effect.

Hope it helps...

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