Spring
AGAIN the bloom, the northward flight,The fount freed at its silver height,And down the deep woods to the lowest,The fragrant shadows scarred with light.
O inescapeable joy of spring!For thee the world shall leap and sing;But by her darkened door thou goestForever as a spectral thing.
Words in this poem
- northward a.
- Toward the north; nearer to the north than to the east or west point. [AS. noredhweard.]
- 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 is in the public domain. This text is taken from Songs at the Start, Project Gutenberg ebook #53087; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Louise Imogen Guiney, Spring, in Songs at the Start (1884), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #53087, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/guiney-songs/spring.html, id L11239.
Form and metre
Spring is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 50% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic 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 8.2 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 12% 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 AA-A flightA · heightA · lowest · lightA
- 2 AA-A springA · singA · goest · thingA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| AGAIN the bloom, the northward flight, | 8 | ˘/···/˘· |
| The fount freed at its silver height, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And down the deep woods to the lowest, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| The fragrant shadows scarred with light. | 8 | ·/˘/···· |
| O inescapeable joy of spring! | 9 | ········· |
| For thee the world shall leap and sing; | 8 | ········ |
| But by her darkened door thou goest | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Forever as a spectral thing. | 8 | ˘/˘··/˘· |
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.