April
No days such honored days as these! When yetFair Aphrodite reigned, men seeking wideFor some fair thing which should forever bideOn earth, her beauteous memory to setIn fitting frame that no age could forget,Her name in lovely April's name did hide,And leave it there, eternally alliedTo all the fairest flowers Spring did beget.And when fair Aphrodite passed from earth,Her shrines forgotten and her feasts of mirth,A holier symbol still in seal and sign,Sweet April took, of kingdom most divine,When Christ ascended, in the time of birthOf spring anemones, in Palestine.
Words in this poem
- aphrodite n.
- The Greek goddess of love, corresponding to the Venus of the Romans.
- bide v. i.
- To dwell; to inhabit; to abide; to stay. [OE. biden, AS. bidan; akin to OHG. bitan, Goth. beidan, Icel. bi; perh. orig., to wait with trust, and akin to bid. See Bid, v. t., and cf. Abide.]
- beauteous a.
- Full of beauty; beautiful; very handsome. [Mostly poetic] -- Beau"te*ous*ly, adv. --
- eternally adv.
- In an eternal manner.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
April is in the public domain. This text is taken from A Calendar of Sonnets, Project Gutenberg ebook #9825; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Helen Hunt Jackson, April, in A Calendar of Sonnets (1886), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9825, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/jackson-sonnets/april.html, id L22648.
Form and metre
April is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAABBACCDDCD. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
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 ABBAABBACCDDCD yetA · wideB · bideB · setA · forgetA · hideB · alliedB · begetA · earthC · mirthC · signD · divineD · birthC · palestineD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| No days such honored days as these! When yet | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Fair Aphrodite reigned, men seeking wide | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| For some fair thing which should forever bide | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| On earth, her beauteous memory to set | 10 | ···/˘˘/˘·· |
| In fitting frame that no age could forget, | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| Her name in lovely April's name did hide, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| And leave it there, eternally allied | 10 | ····˘/˘˘˘/ |
| To all the fairest flowers Spring did beget. | 10 | ···/˘/··˘/ |
| And when fair Aphrodite passed from earth, | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Her shrines forgotten and her feasts of mirth, | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| A holier symbol still in seal and sign, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Sweet April took, of kingdom most divine, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| When Christ ascended, in the time of birth | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Of spring anemones, in Palestine. | 9 | ··/˘··/˘· |
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.