The Spring Beauties
The Puritan Spring Beauties stood freshly clad for church;A Thrush, white-breasted, o’er them sat singing on his perch.“Happy be! for fair are ye!” the gentle singer told them,But presently a buff-coat Bee came booming up to scold them.“Vanity, oh, vanity!Young maids, beware of vanity!”Grumbled out the buff-coat Bee,Half parson-like, half soldierly.
The sweet-faced maidens trembled, with pretty, pinky blushes,Convinced that it was wicked to listen to the Thrushes;And when, that shady afternoon, I chanced that way to pass,They hung their little bonnets down and looked into the grass.All because the buff-coat BeeLectured them so solemnly:--“Vanity, oh, vanity!Young maids, beware of vanity!”
Words in this poem
- clad v.
- To clothe. Holland.
- presently adv.
- At present; at this time; now.
- beware v. t.
- To avoid; to take care of; to have a care for.
- soldierly a.
- Like or becoming a real soldier; brave; martial; heroic; honorable; soldierlike.
- afternoon n.
- The part of the day which follows noon, between noon and evening.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Spring Beauties is in the public domain. This text is taken from A chant of love for England, and other poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #71425; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Helen Gray Cone, The Spring Beauties, in A Chant of Love for England, and Other Poems (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #71425, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/cone-chant-for-england/the-spring-beauties.html, id L22063.
Form and metre
The Spring Beauties is 16 lines in 2 stanzas of 8 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 75% of the lines. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 71%).
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in trochaic tetrameter.
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 AABBCC-- churchA · perchA · themB · themB · vanityC · vanityC · bee · soldierly
- 2 AABB--CC blushesA · thrushesA · passB · grassB · bee · solemnly · vanityC · vanityC
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The Puritan Spring Beauties stood freshly clad for church; | 12 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘··· |
| A Thrush, white-breasted, o’er them sat singing on his perch. | 13 | ···/˘···/˘··· |
| “Happy be! for fair are ye!” the gentle singer told them, | 14 | /˘······/˘/˘·· |
| But presently a buff-coat Bee came booming up to scold them. | 14 | ·/˘·····/˘···· |
| “Vanity, oh, vanity! | 7 | /˘˘·/˘˘ |
| Young maids, beware of vanity!” | 8 | ··˘/·/˘˘ |
| Grumbled out the buff-coat Bee, | 7 | /˘····· |
| Half parson-like, half soldierly. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘˘ |
| The sweet-faced maidens trembled, with pretty, pinky blushes, | 14 | ···/˘/˘·/˘/˘/˘ |
| Convinced that it was wicked to listen to the Thrushes; | 14 | ˘/···/˘·/˘··/˘ |
| And when, that shady afternoon, I chanced that way to pass, | 14 | ···/˘·˘/······ |
| They hung their little bonnets down and looked into the grass. | 14 | ···/˘/˘······· |
| All because the buff-coat Bee | 7 | ······· |
| Lectured them so solemnly:-- | 7 | /˘··/˘˘ |
| “Vanity, oh, vanity! | 7 | /˘˘·/˘˘ |
| Young maids, beware of vanity!” | 8 | ··˘/·/˘˘ |
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.