Spring in New Hampshire (To J. L. J. F. E.)
Too green the springing April grass,Too blue the silver-speckled sky,For me to linger here, alas,While happy winds go laughing by,Wasting the golden hours indoors,Washing windows and scrubbing floors.
Too wonderful the April night,Too faintly sweet the first May flowers,The stars too gloriously bright,For me to spend the evening hours,When fields are fresh and streams are leaping,Wearied, exhausted, dully sleeping.
Words in this poem
- indoors adv.
- Within the house; -- usually separated, in doors.
- dully adv.
- In a dull manner; stupidly; slowly; sluggishly; without life or spirit.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Spring in New Hampshire (To J. L. J. F. E.) is in the public domain. This text is taken from Harlem shadows, Project Gutenberg ebook #64989; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Claude McKay, Spring in New Hampshire (To J. L. J. F. E.), in Harlem Shadows (1922), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #64989, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mckay-harlem-shadows/spring-in-new-hampshire-to-j-l-j-f-e.html, id L01367.
Form and metre
Spring in New Hampshire (To J. L. J. F. E.) is 12 lines in 2 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABABCC. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 88% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.5 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 ABABCC grassA · skyB · alasA · byB · indoorsC · floorsC
- 2 ABABCC nightA · flowersB · brightA · hoursB · leapingC · sleepingC
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Too green the springing April grass, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Too blue the silver-speckled sky, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| For me to linger here, alas, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| While happy winds go laughing by, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Wasting the golden hours indoors, | 8 | /˘·/˘//· |
| Washing windows and scrubbing floors. | 8 | /˘/˘·/˘· |
| Too wonderful the April night, | 8 | ·/˘˘·/˘· |
| Too faintly sweet the first May flowers, | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| The stars too gloriously bright, | 8 | ···/˘˘˘· |
| For me to spend the evening hours, | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| When fields are fresh and streams are leaping, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Wearied, exhausted, dully sleeping. | 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.