A Backward Spring
THE trees are afraid to put forth buds,And there is timidity in the grass;The plots lie gray where gouged by spuds,And whether next week will passFree of sly sour winds is the fret of each bushOf barberry waiting to bloom.
Yet the snowdrop’s face betrays no gloom,And the primrose pants in its heedless push,Though the myrtle asks if it’s worth the fightThis year with frost and rimeTo venture one more timeOn delicate leaves and buttons of whiteFrom the selfsame bough as at last year’s prime,And never to ruminate on or rememberWhat happened to it in mid-December.
Words in this poem
- timidity n.
- The quality or state of being timid; timorousness; timidness. [L. timiditas: cf. F. timidité.]
- rime n.
- A rent or long aperture; a chink; a fissure; a crack. Sir T. [L. rima.]
- selfsame a.
- Precisely the same; the very same; identical. [Self, a. + same.]
- ruminate v. i.
- To chew the cud; to chew again what has been slightly chewed and swallowed. [L. ruminatus, p.p. of ruminari, ruminare, fr. rumen, -inis, throat, akin to ructare to belch, erugere to belch out, Gr. roccettan.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Backward Spring is in the public domain. This text is taken from Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses, Project Gutenberg ebook #3255; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Thomas Hardy, A Backward Spring, in Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3255, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-moments-of-vision/a-backward-spring.html, id L24187.
Form and metre
A Backward Spring is 15 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 74%).
See other poems in iambic 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 ABAB-- budsA · grassB · spudsA · passB · bush · bloom
- 2 --ABBABCC gloom · push · fightA · rimeB · timeB · whiteA · primeB · rememberC · decemberC
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| THE trees are afraid to put forth buds, | 9 | ···˘/···· |
| And there is timidity in the grass; | 9 | ···˘/˘··· |
| The plots lie gray where gouged by spuds, | 8 | ········ |
| And whether next week will pass | 7 | ······· |
| Free of sly sour winds is the fret of each bush | 11 | ···/······· |
| Of barberry waiting to bloom. | 8 | ·/˘˘/˘·· |
| Yet the snowdrop’s face betrays no gloom, | 9 | ·····˘/·· |
| And the primrose pants in its heedless push, | 10 | ··/····/˘· |
| Though the myrtle asks if it’s worth the fight | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| This year with frost and rime | 6 | ······ |
| To venture one more time | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| On delicate leaves and buttons of white | 9 | ·/˘··/˘·· |
| From the selfsame bough as at last year’s prime, | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| And never to ruminate on or remember | 11 | ·/·/˘···˘/˘ |
| What happened to it in mid-December. | 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.