O Thou Breeze of Spring!
O thou breeze of spring,Gladdening sea and shore!Wake the woods to sing,Wake my heart no more!Streams have felt the sighingOf thy scented wing,Let each fount replyingHail thee, breeze of spring!Once more!
O’er long-buried flowersPassing not in vain,Odours in soft showersThou hast brought again.Let the primrose greet thee,Let the violet pourIncense forth to meet thee--Wake my heart no more!No more!
From a funeral urnBower’d in leafy gloom,Even thy soft returnCalls not song or bloom.Leave my spirit sleepingLike that silent thing;Stir the founts of weepingThere, O breeze of spring!No more!
Words in this poem
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
O Thou Breeze of Spring! is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Felicia Hemans, Project Gutenberg ebook #66785; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Felicia Hemans, O Thou Breeze of Spring!, in Poems (1808–1835), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66785, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hemans-poems/o-thou-breeze-of-spring.html, id L19696.
Form and metre
O Thou Breeze of Spring! is 27 lines in 3 stanzas of 9 lines each. The metre is trochaic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
See other poems in trochaic trimeter.
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 ABABCACAB springA · shoreB · singA · moreB · sighingC · wingA · replyingC · springA · moreB
- 2 ABABCDCDD flowersA · vainB · showersA · againB · theeC · pourD · theeC · moreD · moreD
- 3 ABABCDCD- urnA · gloomB · returnA · bloomB · sleepingC · thingD · weepingC · springD · more
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| O thou breeze of spring, | 5 | ····· |
| Gladdening sea and shore! | 6 | /˘˘··· |
| Wake the woods to sing, | 5 | ····· |
| Wake my heart no more! | 5 | ····· |
| Streams have felt the sighing | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Of thy scented wing, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Let each fount replying | 6 | ···˘/˘ |
| Hail thee, breeze of spring! | 5 | ····· |
| Once more! | 2 | ·· |
| O’er long-buried flowers | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| Passing not in vain, | 5 | /˘··· |
| Odours in soft showers | 6 | /˘··/˘ |
| Thou hast brought again. | 5 | ···˘/ |
| Let the primrose greet thee, | 6 | ··/··· |
| Let the violet pour | 6 | ··/˘˘· |
| Incense forth to meet thee-- | 6 | ˘/···· |
| Wake my heart no more! | 5 | ····· |
| No more! | 2 | ·· |
| From a funeral urn | 6 | ··/˘˘· |
| Bower’d in leafy gloom, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Even thy soft return | 6 | /˘··˘/ |
| Calls not song or bloom. | 5 | ····· |
| Leave my spirit sleeping | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| Like that silent thing; | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Stir the founts of weeping | 6 | ····/˘ |
| There, O breeze of spring! | 5 | ····· |
| No more! | 2 | ·· |
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.