Spring Reminiscence
“My sweet,” you sang, and, “Sweet,” I sang,And sweet we sang together,Glad to be young as the world was young,Two colts too strong for a tether.
Shall ever a spring be like that spring,Or apple blossoms as white;Or ever clover smell like the cloverWe lay upon that night?
Shall ever your hand lie in my hand,Pulsing to it, I wonder;Or have the gods, being jealous gods,Envied us our thunder?
Words in this poem
- tether n.
- A long rope or chain by which an animal is fastened, as to a stake, so that it can range or feed only within certain limits. [Formerly tedder, OE. tedir; akin to LG. tider, tier, Icel. tjo, Dan. töir. *64.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Spring Reminiscence is in the public domain. This text is taken from Color, Project Gutenberg ebook #70543; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Countee Cullen, Spring Reminiscence, in Color (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70543, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/cullen-color/spring-reminiscence.html, id L01472.
Form and metre
Spring Reminiscence is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 87% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.7 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 8% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in common measure.
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 -A-A sang · togetherA · young · tetherA
- 2 -A-A spring · whiteA · clover · nightA
- 3 -A-A hand · wonderA · gods · thunderA
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| “My sweet,” you sang, and, “Sweet,” I sang, | 8 | ········ |
| And sweet we sang together, | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| Glad to be young as the world was young, | 9 | ········· |
| Two colts too strong for a tether. | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Shall ever a spring be like that spring, | 8 | ·/······ |
| Or apple blossoms as white; | 7 | ·/˘/˘·· |
| Or ever clover smell like the clover | 9 | ·//˘···/˘ |
| We lay upon that night? | 6 | ······ |
| Shall ever your hand lie in my hand, | 8 | ·/······ |
| Pulsing to it, I wonder; | 7 | /˘···/˘ |
| Or have the gods, being jealous gods, | 8 | ····//˘· |
| Envied us our thunder? | 7 | /˘·/˘/˘ |
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.