April
The April winds are magicalAnd thrill our tuneful frames;The garden walks are passionalTo bachelors and dames.The hedge is gemmed with diamonds,The air with Cupids full,The cobweb clues of RosamondGuide lovers to the pool.Each dimple in the water,Each leaf that shades the rockCan cozen, pique and flatter,Can parley and provoke.Goodfellow, Puck and goblins,Know more than any book.Down with your doleful problems,And court the sunny brook.The south-winds are quick-witted,The schools are sad and slow,The masters quite omittedThe lore we care to know.
Words in this poem
- tuneful a.
- Harmonious; melodious; musical; as, tuneful notes.
- passional a.
- Of or pertaining to passion or the passions; exciting, influenced by, or ministering to, the passions.
- cobweb n.
- The network spread by a spider to catch its prey. [Cob a spider + web.]
- dimple n.
- A slight natural depression or indentation on the surface of some part of the body, esp. on the cheek or chin. [Prob. a nasalized dim. of dip. See Dip, and cf. Dimble.]
- cozen v. t.
- To cheat; to defrand; to beguile; to deceive, usually by small arts, or in a pitiful way. [From cousin, hence, literally, to deceive through pretext of relationship, F. cousiner.]
- pique n.
- A cotton fabric, figured in the loom, -- used as a dress goods for women and children, and for vestings, etc. [F., p.p. of piquer to prick.]
- puck n.
- A celebrated fairy, [OE. pouke; cf. OSw. puke, Icel. puki an evil demon, W. pwca a hobgoblin. Cf. Poker a bugbear, Pug.]
- sunny a.
- Of or pertaining to the sun; proceeding from, or resembling the sun; hence, shining; bright; brilliant; radiant.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
April is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems Household Edition, Project Gutenberg ebook #12843; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Ralph Waldo Emerson, April, in Poems (1847), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12843, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/emerson-poems/april.html, id L07472.
Form and metre
April is 20 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.7 syllables. 10 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 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 -A-A---------B-BCDCD magical · framesA · passional · damesA · diamonds · full · rosamond · pool · water · rock · flatter · provoke · goblins · bookB · problems · brookB · wittedC · slowD · omittedC · knowD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The April winds are magical | 8 | ·/˘··/˘˘ |
| And thrill our tuneful frames; | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| The garden walks are passional | 8 | ·/˘··/˘˘ |
| To bachelors and dames. | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| The hedge is gemmed with diamonds, | 8 | ····˘·/˘ |
| The air with Cupids full, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The cobweb clues of Rosamond | 8 | ·/···/˘˘ |
| Guide lovers to the pool. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Each dimple in the water, | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| Each leaf that shades the rock | 6 | ······ |
| Can cozen, pique and flatter, | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| Can parley and provoke. | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| Goodfellow, Puck and goblins, | 7 | /·˘··/˘ |
| Know more than any book. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Down with your doleful problems, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| And court the sunny brook. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The south-winds are quick-witted, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| The schools are sad and slow, | 6 | ······ |
| The masters quite omitted | 7 | ·/˘·˘/˘ |
| The lore we care to know. | 6 | ······ |
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.