Very Early Spring
The fields are snowbound no longer;There are little blue lakes and flags of tenderest green.The snow has been caught up into the sky—So many white clouds—and the blue of the sky is cold.Now the sun walks in the forest,He touches the boughs and stems with his golden fingers;They shiver, and wake from slumber.Over the barren branches he shakes his yellow curls.... Yet is the forest full of the sound of tears....A wind dances over the fields.Shrill and clear the sound of her waking laughter,Yet the little blue lakes trembleAnd the flags of tenderest green bend and quiver.
About this text
Very Early Spring is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #59276; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Katherine Mansfield, Very Early Spring, in Poems (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59276, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mansfield-poems/very-early-spring.html, id L27584.
Form and metre
Very Early Spring is 13 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 72%).
See other poems in iambic hexameter.
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.
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 hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The fields are snowbound no longer; | 8 | ···/··/˘ |
| There are little blue lakes and flags of tenderest green. | 12 | ··/˘·····/˘· |
| The snow has been caught up into the sky— | 10 | ·········· |
| So many white clouds—and the blue of the sky is cold. | 12 | ·/·········· |
| Now the sun walks in the forest, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| He touches the boughs and stems with his golden fingers; | 13 | ·/˘······/˘/˘ |
| They shiver, and wake from slumber. | 8 | ·/˘···/˘ |
| Over the barren branches he shakes his yellow curls. | 12 | ··/˘/˘···/˘· |
| ... Yet is the forest full of the sound of tears.... | 11 | ···/˘······ |
| A wind dances over the fields. | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Shrill and clear the sound of her waking laughter, | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| Yet the little blue lakes tremble | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| And the flags of tenderest green bend and quiver. | 11 | ····/˘···/˘ |
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.