In Spring
See how the trees and the osiers litheAre green bedecked and the woods are blithe,The meadows have donned their cape of flowers,The air is soft with the sweet May showers,And the birds make melody:But the spring of the soul, the spring of the soul,Cometh no more for you or for me.
The lazy hum of the busy beesMurmureth through the almond trees;The jonquil flaunteth a gay, blonde head,The primrose peeps from a mossy bed,And the violets scent the lane.But the flowers of the soul, the flowers of the soul,For you and for me bloom never again.
Words in this poem
- lithe v. i.
- To listen or listen to; to hearken to. P. Plowman. [Icel Listen.]
- blithe a.
- Gay; merry; sprightly; joyous; glad; cheerful; as, a blithe spirit. [AS. bli blithe, kind; akin to Goth. blei kind, Icel. bli mild, gentle, Dan. & Sw. blid gentle, D. blijd blithe, OHG. blidi kind, blithe.]
- blonde a.
- Of a fair color; light-colored; as, blond hair; a blond complexion. [F., fair, light, of uncertain origin; cf. AS. blonden-feax gray-haired, old, prop. blended-haired, as a mixture of white and brown or black. See Blend, v. t.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
In Spring is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems and Prose of Ernest Dowson, With a Memoir by Arthur Symons, Project Gutenberg ebook #8497; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Ernest Dowson, In Spring, in The Poems of Ernest Dowson (1896–1899), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8497, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dowson-poems/in-spring.html, id L01691.
Form and metre
In Spring is 14 lines in 2 stanzas of 7 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 57% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 75%). 77% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.3 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 14% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, other poems in iambic 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 AABB--- litheA · blitheA · flowersB · showersB · melody · soul · me
- 2 AABBC-C beesA · treesA · headB · bedB · laneC · soul · againC
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| See how the trees and the osiers lithe | 9 | ········· |
| Are green bedecked and the woods are blithe, | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| The meadows have donned their cape of flowers, | 10 | ·/······/˘ |
| The air is soft with the sweet May showers, | 10 | ········/˘ |
| And the birds make melody: | 7 | ····/˘˘ |
| But the spring of the soul, the spring of the soul, | 11 | ··········· |
| Cometh no more for you or for me. | 9 | /˘······· |
| The lazy hum of the busy bees | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
| Murmureth through the almond trees; | 8 | /˘˘··/˘· |
| The jonquil flaunteth a gay, blonde head, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| The primrose peeps from a mossy bed, | 9 | ·/····/˘· |
| And the violets scent the lane. | 8 | ··/˘˘··· |
| But the flowers of the soul, the flowers of the soul, | 11 | ··/····/··· |
| For you and for me bloom never again. | 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.