February
Still lie the sheltering snows, undimmed and white;And reigns the winter's pregnant silence still;No sign of spring, save that the catkins fill,And willow stems grow daily red and bright.These are the days when ancients held a riteOf expiation for the old year's ill,And prayer to purify the new year's will:Fit days, ere yet the spring rains blur the sight,Ere yet the bounding blood grows hot with haste,And dreaming thoughts grow heavy with a greedThe ardent summer's joy to have and taste;Fit days, to give to last year's losses heed,To reckon clear the new life's sterner need;Fit days, for Feast of Expiation placed!
Words in this poem
- greed n.
- An eager desire or longing; greediness; as, a greed of gain. [Akin to Goth. grdus hunger, Icel. graedhr. sq. root34. See Greedy.]
- sterner n.
- A director. Dr. R. Clerke. [See 3d Stern.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
February 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, February, in A Calendar of Sonnets (1886), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9825, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/jackson-sonnets/february.html, id L22646.
Form and metre
February is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 57% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
See other poems in heroic couplets, 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 ABBAABBACDCDDC whiteA · stillB · fillB · brightA · riteA · illB · willB · sightA · hasteC · greedD · tasteC · heedD · needD · placedC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Still lie the sheltering snows, undimmed and white; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And reigns the winter's pregnant silence still; | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| No sign of spring, save that the catkins fill, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And willow stems grow daily red and bright. | 10 | ·/···/˘··· |
| These are the days when ancients held a rite | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Of expiation for the old year's ill, | 9 | ········· |
| And prayer to purify the new year's will: | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Fit days, ere yet the spring rains blur the sight, | 10 | ·········· |
| Ere yet the bounding blood grows hot with haste, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And dreaming thoughts grow heavy with a greed | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| The ardent summer's joy to have and taste; | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Fit days, to give to last year's losses heed, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| To reckon clear the new life's sterner need; | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Fit days, for Feast of Expiation placed! | 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.