March
This is the tomboy month of all the year,March, who comes shouting o'er the winter hills,Waking the world with laughter, as she wills,Or wild halloos, a windflower in her ear.She stops a moment by the half-thawed mereAnd whistles to the wind, and straightway shrillsThe hyla's song, and hoods of daffodilsCrowd golden round her, leaning their heads to hear.Then through the woods, that drip with all their eaves,Her mad hair blown about her, loud she goesSinging and calling to the naked trees;And straight the oilets of the little leavesOpen their eyes in wonder, rows on rows,And the first bluebird bugles to the breeze.
Words in this poem
- tomboy n.
- A romping girl; a hoiden. J. Fletcher. [Tom (for Thomas, L. Thomas, fr. Gr. boy.]
- windflower n.
- The anemone; -- so called because formerly supposed to open only when the wind was blowing. See Anemone.
- straightway adv.
- Immediately; without loss of time; without delay.
- drip v. i.
- To fall in drops; as, water drips from the eaves. [Akin to LG. drippen, Dan. dryppe, from a noun. See Drop.]
- bluebird n.
- A small song bird (Sialia sialis), very common in the United States, and, in the north, one of the earliest to arrive in spring.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
March is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #7796; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Madison Julius Cawein, March, in Poems (1911), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7796, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/cawein-poems/march.html, id L10963.
Form and metre
March is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAABBACDECDE, the pattern of the Italian sonnet. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 36% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other Italian sonnets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABBAABBACDECDE yearA · hillsB · willsB · earA · mereA · shrillsB · daffodilsB · hearA · eavesC · goesD · treesE · leavesC · rowsD · breezeE
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| This is the tomboy month of all the year, | 10 | ···/······ |
| March, who comes shouting o'er the winter hills, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Waking the world with laughter, as she wills, | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| Or wild halloos, a windflower in her ear. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| She stops a moment by the half-thawed mere | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And whistles to the wind, and straightway shrills | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| The hyla's song, and hoods of daffodils | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Crowd golden round her, leaning their heads to hear. | 11 | ·/˘··/˘···· |
| Then through the woods, that drip with all their eaves, | 10 | ·········· |
| Her mad hair blown about her, loud she goes | 10 | ·········· |
| Singing and calling to the naked trees; | 10 | /˘·/˘··/˘· |
| And straight the oilets of the little leaves | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Open their eyes in wonder, rows on rows, | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| And the first bluebird bugles to the breeze. | 10 | ···/·/˘··· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.