March
Month which the warring ancients strangely styledThe month of war,--as if in their fierce waysWere any month of peace!--in thy rough daysI find no war in Nature, though the wildWinds clash and clang, and broken boughs are piledAt feet of writhing trees. The violets raiseTheir heads without affright, without amaze,And sleep through all the din, as sleeps a child.And he who watches well may well discernSweet expectation in each living thing.Like pregnant mother the sweet earth doth yearn;In secret joy makes ready for the spring;And hidden, sacred, in her breast doth bearAnnunciation lilies for the year.
Words in this poem
- strangely adv.
- As something foreign, or not one's own; in a manner adapted to something foreign and strange.
- clang v. t.
- To strike together so as to produce a ringing metallic sound. [L. clangere; akin to Gr. clank.]
- piled a.
- Having a pile or point; pointed. [From 2d Pile.]
- amaze v. t.
- To bewilder; to stupefy; to bring into a maze. [Pref. a- + maze.]
- yearn v. t.
- To pain; to grieve; to vex. [Also earn, ern; probably a corruption of OE. ermen to grieve, AS. ierman, yrman, or geierman, geyrman, fr. earm wretched, poor; akin to D. & G. arm, Icel. armr,]
- annunciation n.
- The act of announcing; announcement; proclamation; as, the annunciation of peace. [L. annuntiatio: cf. F. annonciation.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
March 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, March, in A Calendar of Sonnets (1886), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9825, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/jackson-sonnets/march.html, id L22647.
Form and metre
March is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAABBACDCDEE. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
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 ABBAABBACDCDEE styledA · waysB · daysB · wildA · piledA · raiseB · amazeB · childA · discernC · thingD · yearnC · springD · bearE · yearE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Month which the warring ancients strangely styled | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| The month of war,--as if in their fierce ways | 10 | ·········· |
| Were any month of peace!--in thy rough days | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| I find no war in Nature, though the wild | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Winds clash and clang, and broken boughs are piled | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| At feet of writhing trees. The violets raise | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Their heads without affright, without amaze, | 10 | ····˘/··˘/ |
| And sleep through all the din, as sleeps a child. | 10 | ·········· |
| And he who watches well may well discern | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Sweet expectation in each living thing. | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| Like pregnant mother the sweet earth doth yearn; | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| In secret joy makes ready for the spring; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| And hidden, sacred, in her breast doth bear | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Annunciation lilies for the year. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
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.