--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Spring had come early that year, with…" description: "\"“Spring had come early that year, with warm quick rains and sudden frothing of pink peach blossoms and dogwood dappling with white stars the dark river..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f44/margaret-mitchell-692_red-sea_spring-had-come-early-that-year-with-war_1045658.jpg" --- # Spring had come early that year, with warm quick rains and… ![“Spring had come early that year, with warm quick rains and sudden frothing of pink peach blossoms and dogwood dappling with white stars the dark river swamp and far-off hills. Already the plowing was nearly finished, and the bloody glory of the sunset colored the fresh-cut furrows of red Georgia…” quote by Margaret Mitchell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f44/margaret-mitchell-692_red-sea_spring-had-come-early-that-year-with-war_1045658.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f44/margaret-mitchell-692_red-sea_spring-had-come-early-that-year-with-war_1045658.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f44/margaret-mitchell-692_red-sea_spring-had-come-early-that-year-with-war_1045658.jpg) > ““Spring had come early that year, with warm quick rains and sudden frothing of pink peach blossoms and dogwood dappling with white stars the dark river swamp and far-off hills. Already the plowing was nearly finished, and the bloody glory of the sunset colored the fresh-cut furrows of red Georgia clay to even redder hues. The moist hungry earth, waiting upturned for the cotton seeds, showed pinkish on the sandy tops of furrows, vermilion and scarlet and maroon where shadows lay along the sides of the trenches. The whitewashed brick plantation house seemed an island set in a wild red sea, a sea of spiraling, curving, crescent billows petrified suddenly at the moment when the pink-tipped waves were breaking into surf. For here were no long, straight furrows, such as could be seen in the yellow clay fields of the flat middle Georgia country or in the lush black earth of the coastal plantations. The rolling foothill country of north Georgia was plowed in a million curves to keep the rich earth from washing down into the river bottoms. It was a savagely red land, blood-colored after rains, brick dust in droughts, the best cotton land in the world. It was a pleasant land of white houses, peaceful plowed fields and sluggish yellow rivers, but a land of contrasts, of brightest sun glare and densest shade. The plantation clearings and miles of cotton fields smiled up to a warm sun, placid, complacent. At their edges rose the virgin forests, dark and cool even in the hottest noons, mysterious, a little sinister, the soughing pines seeming to wait with an age-old patience, to threaten with soft sighs: "Be careful! Be careful! We had you once. We can take you back again.”” [Margaret Mitchell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/margaret-mitchell/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. A vivid description of Georgia’s cotton fields, contrasting beauty and harshness, showing nature’s richness and the land’s laborious cultivation. **In simple terms:** Red earth, bright sky, and hidden danger coexist. Key Takeaway Notice both beauty and hardship in any landscape. Themes nature landscape contrast history labor Mood reflective melancholic poetic Type descriptive historical When to use this quote - Farm work - historical tours - environmental studies - creative writing Key Concepts Agriculture environment colonialism Questions to Reflect On - How does the setting reflect the era’s social tensions? - What does the land’s duality suggest about human ambition? A Different Perspective The romanticized view may overlook the suffering of enslaved people. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Cotton Land](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/cotton-land-2470644/) [Flower](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/flower/) [Georgia Plowed](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/georgia-plowed-2470643/) [Land Contrasts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/land-contrasts-2470642/) [Plantations Rolling](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/plantations-rolling-2470645/) [Plowed Fields](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/plowed-fields-1018021/) [Red sea](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/red-sea/) ## Related quotes > [“For all those landscapes, those flowers and those plowed fields, the oldest of lands, show you every spring that there are things you cannot…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/albert-camus/for-all-those-landscapes-those-flowers-and-those-plowed-fields-the/) [Albert Camus](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/albert-camus/) > [“By what peculiar twist of perception, I wondered, had I managed to see the plowed fields and second-growth forests of southern Wisconsin—a landscape of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-cronon/by-what-peculiar-twist-of-perception-i-wondered-had-i-managed-to-see/) [William Cronon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-cronon/) > [I plowed fields with horses and worked as a hired hand in high school for 50 cents a day.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stewart-udall/i-plowed-fields-with-horses-and-worked-as-a-hired-hand-in-high-school/) [Stewart Udall](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stewart-udall/) > [History celebrates the battlefields whereon we meet our death, but scorns to speak of the plowed fields whereby we thrive. 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Even as a kid I had a sense of it being slightly illicit. As though someone had slipped…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joshua-harris/i-especially-loved-the-old-testament-even-as-a-kid-i-had-a-sense-of/) [Joshua Harris](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joshua-harris/) > [We scuba dived in the Red Sea, the Pacific and the Indian oceans. We lived in Bali and India.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/yvette-mimieux/we-scuba-dived-in-the-red-sea-the-pacific-and-the-indian-oceans-we/) [Yvette Mimieux](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/yvette-mimieux/) > [“The Red Sea lay beyond, inert, the whole thing doomed. The Saudis were sucking it dry to drink. In the seventies they’d drained a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/the-red-sea-lay-beyond-inert-the-whole-thing-doomed-the-saudis-were/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [“Mungu hutumia watu 'wajinga' na 'wapumbavu' kufanya mambo makubwa katika maisha yao na ya watu wengine. Katika Biblia, Musa aliitwa mjinga alipokiuka amri ya…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/enock-maregesi/mungu-hutumia-watu-wajinga-na-wapumbavu-kufanya-mambo-makubwa-katika/) [Enock Maregesi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/enock-maregesi/) > [Those old hypocrites. They talk about killing witches but the Good Book’s full of magic. Turning the Nile to blood and parting the Red…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/clive-barker/those-old-hypocrites-they-talk-about-killing-witches-but-the-good/) [Clive Barker](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/clive-barker/) ## More by Margaret Mitchell > [I won't think of it now. I can't stand it now. I'll think of it later.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/margaret-mitchell/i-won-t-think-of-it-now-i-can-t-stand-it-now-i-ll-think-of-it-later/) [Margaret Mitchell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/margaret-mitchell/) > [“I don't want any money for it," he said. "It's a gift." Scarlett's mouth dropped open. 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We all don't think alike or act alike and it's wrong to-to judge others by ourselves.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/margaret-mitchell/people-must-do-what-they-must-do-we-all-don-t-think-alike-or-act/) [Margaret Mitchell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/margaret-mitchell/) > [All you have done is to be different from other women and you have made a little success of it. This is unforgivable sin…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/margaret-mitchell/all-you-have-done-is-to-be-different-from-other-women-and-you-have/) [Margaret Mitchell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/margaret-mitchell/) > [“She felt puzzled and ashamed, as always when people attributed to her emotions and motives they possessed and thought she shared.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/margaret-mitchell/she-felt-puzzled-and-ashamed-as-always-when-people-attributed-to-her/) [Margaret Mitchell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/margaret-mitchell/) > [“I do not want to marry you or anyone else. I am not a marrying man.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/margaret-mitchell/i-do-not-want-to-marry-you-or-anyone-else-i-am-not-a-marrying-man/) [Margaret Mitchell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/margaret-mitchell/) [Explore all 391 Margaret Mitchell quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/margaret-mitchell/) ## More Flower quotes > [“It is not the force of the wind, but the depth of the roots.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/craig-d-lounsbrough/it-is-not-the-force-of-the-wind-but-the-depth-of-the-roots/) [Craig D. Lounsbrough](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/craig-d-lounsbrough/) > [A Light exists in Spring Not present on the Year At any other period - When March is scarcely here A Color stands abroad…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emily-dickinson/a-light-exists-in-spring-not-present-on-the-year-at-any-other-period/) [Emily Dickinson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emily-dickinson/) > [Set NOT your hearts on the flowers of this world. They shall fade and die. 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Already the plowing was nearly finished, and the bloody glory of the sunset colored the fresh-cut furrows of red Georgia clay to even redder hues. The moist hungry earth, waiting upturned for the cotton seeds, showed pinkish on the sandy tops of furrows, vermilion and scarlet and maroon where shadows lay along the sides of the trenches. The whitewashed brick plantation house seemed an island set in a wild red sea, a sea of spiraling, curving, crescent billows petrified suddenly at the moment when the pink-tipped waves were breaking into surf. For here were no long, straight furrows, such as could be seen in the yellow clay fields of the flat middle Georgia country or in the lush black earth of the coastal plantations. The rolling foothill country of north Georgia was plowed in a million curves to keep the rich earth from washing down into the river bottoms. It was a savagely red land, blood-colored after rains, brick dust in droughts, the best cotton land in the world. It was a pleasant land of white houses, peaceful plowed fields and sluggish yellow rivers, but a land of contrasts, of brightest sun glare and densest shade. The plantation clearings and miles of cotton fields smiled up to a warm sun, placid, complacent. At their edges rose the virgin forests, dark and cool even in the hottest noons, mysterious, a little sinister, the soughing pines seeming to wait with an age-old patience, to threaten with soft sighs: \"Be careful! Be careful! We had you once. We can take you back again.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Margaret Mitchell" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/margaret-mitchell/spring-had-come-early-that-year-with-warm-quick-rains-and-sudden/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Flower" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/margaret-mitchell/spring-had-come-early-that-year-with-warm-quick-rains-and-sudden/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f44/margaret-mitchell-692_red-sea_spring-had-come-early-that-year-with-war_1045658.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f44/margaret-mitchell-692_red-sea_spring-had-come-early-that-year-with-war_1045658.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f44/margaret-mitchell-692_red-sea_spring-had-come-early-that-year-with-war_1045658.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Spring had come early that year, with warm quick rains and sudden frothing of pink peach blossoms and…” — Margaret Mitchell", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Margaret Mitchell", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/margaret-mitchell/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "“Spring had come early that year,...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/margaret-mitchell/spring-had-come-early-that-year-with-warm-quick-rains-and-sudden/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/margaret-mitchell/spring-had-come-early-that-year-with-warm-quick-rains-and-sudden/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```