Spring
To what purpose, April, do you return again?Beauty is not enough.You can no longer quiet me with the rednessOf little leaves opening stickily.I know what I know.The sun is hot on my neck as I observeThe spikes of the crocus.The smell of the earth is good.It is apparent that there is no death.But what does that signify?Not only under ground are the brains of menEaten by maggots.Life in itselfIs nothing,An empty cup, a flight of uncarpeted stairs.It is not enough that yearly, down this hill,AprilComes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers.
Words in this poem
- idiot n.
- A man in private station, as distinguished from one holding a public office. [F. idiot, L. idiota an uneducated, ignorant, ill- informed person, Gr. Idiom.]
- strewing n.
- The act of scattering or spreading.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Spring is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #59167; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edna St. Vincent Millay, Spring, in Poems (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59167, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/millay-poems/spring.html, id L24359.
Form and metre
Spring is 18 lines in a single stanza.
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 A---------A----BB- againA · enough · redness · stickily · know · observe · crocus · good · death · signify · menA · maggots · itself · nothing · stairs · hillB · aprilB · flowers
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| To what purpose, April, do you return again? | 12 | ··/˘/˘··˘/˘/ |
| Beauty is not enough. | 6 | /˘··˘/ |
| You can no longer quiet me with the redness | 11 | ···/˘/···/˘ |
| Of little leaves opening stickily. | 9 | ·/˘·/˘··· |
| I know what I know. | 5 | ····· |
| The sun is hot on my neck as I observe | 11 | ·········˘/ |
| The spikes of the crocus. | 6 | ····/˘ |
| The smell of the earth is good. | 7 | ······· |
| It is apparent that there is no death. | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| But what does that signify? | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Not only under ground are the brains of men | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| Eaten by maggots. | 5 | /˘·/˘ |
| Life in itself | 4 | ··˘/ |
| Is nothing, | 3 | ·/˘ |
| An empty cup, a flight of uncarpeted stairs. | 12 | ·/˘········· |
| It is not enough that yearly, down this hill, | 11 | ···˘/·/˘··· |
| April | 2 | /˘ |
| Comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers. | 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.