To Flora
When April woke the drowsy flowers,And vagrant odours thronged the breeze,And bluebirds wrangled in the bowers,And daisies flashed along the leas,And faint arbutus strove amongDead winter's leaf-strewn wreck to rise,And nature's sweetly jubilant songWent murmuring up the sunny skies,Into this cheerful world you came,And gained by right your vernal name.
I think the springs have changed of late,For "Arctics" are my daily wear,The skies are turned to cold grey slate,And zephyrs are but draughts of air;But you make up whate'er we lack,When we, too rarely, come together,More potent than the almanac,You bring the ideal April weather;When you are with us we defyThe blustering air, the lowering sky;In spite of winter's icy darts,We've spring and sunshine in our hearts.
In fine, upon this April day,This deep conundrum I will bring:Tell me the two good reasons, pray,I have, to say you are like spring?
Words in this poem
- jubilant a.
- Uttering songs of triumph; shouting with joy; triumphant; exulting. [L. jubilans, -antis, p. pr. of jubilare to shout for joy: cf. F. jubila. See Jubilate.]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- sunny a.
- Of or pertaining to the sun; proceeding from, or resembling the sun; hence, shining; bright; brilliant; radiant.
- defy v. t.
- To renounce or dissolve all bonds of affiance, faith, or obligation with; to reject, refuse, or renounce. [F. défier, OF. deffier, desfier, LL. disfidare to disown faith or fidelity, to dissolve the bond of allegiance, as between the vassal and his lord; hence, to ch]
- sunshine n.
- The light of the sun, or the place where it shines; the direct rays of the sun, the place where they fall, or the warmth and light which they give.
- conundrum n.
- A kind of riddle based upon some fanciful or fantastic resemblance between things quite unlike; a puzzling question, of which the answer is or involves a pun. [Origin unknown.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Flora is in the public domain. This text is taken from Pike County Ballads and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #6062; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Hay, To Flora, in Pike County Ballads and Other Poems (1871), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6062, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hay-pike-county/to-flora.html, id L21599.
Form and metre
To Flora is 26 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
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 ABAB-C-CDD flowersA · breezeB · bowersA · leasB · among · riseC · song · skiesC · cameD · nameD
- 2 ABABCDCDEEFF lateA · wearB · slateA · airB · lackC · togetherD · almanacC · weatherD · defyE · skyE · dartsF · heartsF
- 3 ABAB dayA · bringB · prayA · springB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| When April woke the drowsy flowers, | 9 | ·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| And vagrant odours thronged the breeze, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| And bluebirds wrangled in the bowers, | 9 | ·/·/˘··/˘ |
| And daisies flashed along the leas, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| And faint arbutus strove among | 8 | ········ |
| Dead winter's leaf-strewn wreck to rise, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And nature's sweetly jubilant song | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| Went murmuring up the sunny skies, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Into this cheerful world you came, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And gained by right your vernal name. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| I think the springs have changed of late, | 8 | ········ |
| For "Arctics" are my daily wear, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The skies are turned to cold grey slate, | 8 | ········ |
| And zephyrs are but draughts of air; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| But you make up whate'er we lack, | 9 | ····˘˘/·· |
| When we, too rarely, come together, | 9 | ···/˘·˘/˘ |
| More potent than the almanac, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| You bring the ideal April weather; | 9 | ···˘//˘/˘ |
| When you are with us we defy | 8 | ······˘/ |
| The blustering air, the lowering sky; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| In spite of winter's icy darts, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| We've spring and sunshine in our hearts. | 8 | ···/··/· |
| In fine, upon this April day, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| This deep conundrum I will bring: | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| Tell me the two good reasons, pray, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| I have, to say you are like spring? | 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.