March
We like March, his shoes are purple,He is new and high;Makes he mud for dog and peddler,Makes he forest dry;Knows the adder's tongue his coming,And begets her spot.Stands the sun so close and mightyThat our minds are hot.News is he of all the others;Bold it were to dieWith the blue-birds buccaneeringOn his British sky.
About this text
March is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems by Emily Dickinson, Three Series, Complete, Project Gutenberg ebook #12242; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Emily Dickinson, March, in Poems (1890–1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12242, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dickinson-poems/march.html, id L03787.
Form and metre
March is 12 lines in a single stanza. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.6 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See 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 -A-A-B-B-A-A purple · highA · peddler · dryA · coming · spotB · mighty · hotB · others · dieA · buccaneering · skyA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| We like March, his shoes are purple, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| He is new and high; | 5 | ····· |
| Makes he mud for dog and peddler, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Makes he forest dry; | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Knows the adder's tongue his coming, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| And begets her spot. | 5 | ·˘/·· |
| Stands the sun so close and mighty | 8 | ······/˘ |
| That our minds are hot. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| News is he of all the others; | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Bold it were to die | 5 | ····· |
| With the blue-birds buccaneering | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| On his British sky. | 5 | ··/˘· |
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.