Ah woe is me! Winter is come and gone,
But grief returns with the revolving year.

The speaker laments that the outward cycle of nature offers no lasting remedy for inward sorrow. Winter—often associated with hardship—has already “come and gone,” yet grief persists and returns “with the revolving year,” suggesting a recurrent, almost seasonal pattern of mourning. The lines contrast natural renewal with emotional stasis: time moves forward, but loss reasserts itself, implying that memory and bereavement can be periodic and involuntary. The exclamation “Ah woe is me!” frames the passage as lyric complaint, emphasizing the helplessness of the individual against both time’s cycles and the mind’s tendency to revisit pain.