A Song in Spring
Wild bees that rifle the mango blossom,Set free awhile from the love-god's string,Wild birds that sway in the citron branches,Drunk with the rich, red honey of spring,
Fireflies weaving aërial dancesIn fragile rhythms of flickering gold,What do you know in your blithe, brief seasonOf dreams deferred and a heart grown old?
But the wise winds know, as they pause to slackenThe speed of their subtle, omniscient flight,Divining the magic of unblown lilies,Foretelling the stars of the unborn night.
They have followed the hurrying feet of pilgrims,Tracking swift prayers to their utmost goals,They have spied on Love's old and changeless secret,And the changing sorrow of human souls.
They have tarried with Death in her parleying-places,And issued the word of her high decree,Their wings have winnowed the garnered sunlight,Their lips have tasted the purple sea.
Words in this poem
- awhile adv.
- For a while; for some time; for a short time. [Adj. a + while time, interval.]
- blithe a.
- Gay; merry; sprightly; joyous; glad; cheerful; as, a blithe spirit. [AS. bli blithe, kind; akin to Goth. blei kind, Icel. bli mild, gentle, Dan. & Sw. blid gentle, D. blijd blithe, OHG. blidi kind, blithe.]
- omniscient a.
- Having universal knowledge; knowing all things; infinitely knowing or wise; as, the omniscient God. [Omni- + L. sciens, -entis, p. pr. of scire to know: cf. F. omniscient. See Science.]
- unborn a.
- Not born; no yet brought into life; being still to appear; future.
- changeless a.
- That can not be changed; constant; as, a changeless purpose.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Song in Spring is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Bird of Time: Songs of Life, Death & the Spring (London: William Heinemann; New York: John Lane Company, 1912), Wikisource; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Sarojini Naidu, A Song in Spring, in The Bird of Time: Songs of Life, Death & the Spring (1912), text of Wikisource, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/naidu-bird-of-time/a-song-in-spring.html, id L27528.
Form and metre
A Song in Spring is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 74%).
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 -A-A blossom · stringA · branches · springA
- 2 -A-A dances · goldA · season · oldA
- 3 -A-A slacken · flightA · lilies · nightA
- 4 -A-A pilgrims · goalsA · secret · soulsA
- 5 -A-A places · decreeA · sunlight · seaA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Wild bees that rifle the mango blossom, | 10 | ···/˘·/˘/˘ |
| Set free awhile from the love-god's string, | 9 | ··˘/····· |
| Wild birds that sway in the citron branches, | 10 | ······/˘/˘ |
| Drunk with the rich, red honey of spring, | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| Fireflies weaving aërial dances | 9 | /˘·/˘··/˘ |
| In fragile rhythms of flickering gold, | 10 | ·/˘/˘·/˘˘· |
| What do you know in your blithe, brief season | 10 | ········/˘ |
| Of dreams deferred and a heart grown old? | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| But the wise winds know, as they pause to slacken | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| The speed of their subtle, omniscient flight, | 10 | ····/˘˘/˘· |
| Divining the magic of unblown lilies, | 11 | ˘/˘·/˘···/˘ |
| Foretelling the stars of the unborn night. | 10 | ˘/˘····//· |
| They have followed the hurrying feet of pilgrims, | 11 | ··/˘·/˘··/˘ |
| Tracking swift prayers to their utmost goals, | 9 | /˘····/·· |
| They have spied on Love's old and changeless secret, | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| And the changing sorrow of human souls. | 10 | ··/˘/˘·/˘· |
| They have tarried with Death in her parleying-places, | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| And issued the word of her high decree, | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| Their wings have winnowed the garnered sunlight, | 10 | ···/··/˘/· |
| Their lips have tasted the purple sea. | 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.