Spring-Dawn
Heaven, the Spring’s coming true again!Easterly over the sky’s spring-blue againPasses a pearly flight of cloud--Somewhere a dovecote is empty, surely!And all of its birds have flown in a broodOver the pure blue purely!
Westerly owl-grey gatheringsLinger a little yet:Soon, owls! soon you will shrinkOut of the sun, I think,Who even now turns silver-wetThe last of your ghostly gatherings.
Back to your windy barns again,To your forsaken granaries,Haunting, hating breed of the Winter!For the grass in the mould begins to teem,By every gate where the cuckoo fliesPrimrose and fragile wind-flower enter,And, lovelier truth than any dream,Blue light is mirrored in ancient tarns again!
Words in this poem
- easterly a.
- Coming from the east; as, it was easterly wind.
- somewhere adv.
- In some place unknown or not specified; in one place or another.
- dovecote n.
- A small house or box, raised to a considerable height above the ground, and having compartments, in which domestic pigeons breed; a dove house.
- flown a.
- Flushed, inflated.
- westerly a.
- Of or pertaining to the west; toward the west; coming from the west; western.
- ghostly a.
- Relating to the soul; not carnal or secular; spiritual; as, a ghostly confessor. [OE. gastlich, gostlich, AS. gastlic. See Ghost.]
- mould n.
- Crumbling, soft, friable earth; esp., earth containing the remains or constituents of organic matter, and suited to the growth of plants; soil. [OE. molde, AS. molde; akin to D. mul, G. mull, mulm, OHG. molt, molta, Icel. mold, Dan. muld, Sw. mull, Goth. mulda, and E. meal flour. See Meal, and cf. Mole a]
- teem v. t.
- To think fit. G. Gifford. [See Tame, a., and cf. Beteem.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Spring-Dawn is in the public domain. This text is taken from Sonnets and Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #56244; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Eleanor Farjeon, Spring-Dawn, in Sonnets and Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56244, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/farjeon-sonnets-poems/spring-dawn.html, id L21980.
Form and metre
Spring-Dawn is 20 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is trochaic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 74%).
See other poems in trochaic pentameter.
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 AA-B-B againA · againA · cloud · surelyB · brood · purelyB
- 2 ABCCBA gatheringsA · yetB · shrinkC · thinkC · wetB · gatheringsA
- 3 AB-CB-CA againA · granariesB · winter · teemC · fliesB · enter · dreamC · againA
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Heaven, the Spring’s coming true again! | 8 | /··/˘·˘/ |
| Easterly over the sky’s spring-blue again | 9 | /˘·····˘/ |
| Passes a pearly flight of cloud-- | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| Somewhere a dovecote is empty, surely! | 11 | /······/˘/˘ |
| And all of its birds have flown in a brood | 10 | ·········· |
| Over the pure blue purely! | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Westerly owl-grey gatherings | 8 | /˘˘··/˘˘ |
| Linger a little yet: | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| Soon, owls! soon you will shrink | 6 | ······ |
| Out of the sun, I think, | 6 | ······ |
| Who even now turns silver-wet | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The last of your ghostly gatherings. | 9 | ····/˘/˘˘ |
| Back to your windy barns again, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| To your forsaken granaries, | 7 | ··˘/˘·· |
| Haunting, hating breed of the Winter! | 9 | /˘/˘···/˘ |
| For the grass in the mould begins to teem, | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| By every gate where the cuckoo flies | 9 | ·/˘···/·· |
| Primrose and fragile wind-flower enter, | 9 | /··/˘·//˘ |
| And, lovelier truth than any dream, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Blue light is mirrored in ancient tarns again! | 11 | ···/˘·/˘·˘/ |
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.