The Joy of the Springtime
Springtime, O Springtime, what is your essence,The lilt of a bulbul, the laugh of a rose,The dance of the dew on the wings of a moonbeam,The voice of the zephyr that sings as he goes,The hope of a bride or the dream of a maidenWatching the petals of gladness unclose?
Springtime, O Springtime, what is your secret,The bliss at the core of your magical mirth,That quickens the pulse of the morning to wonderAnd hastens the seeds of all beauty to birth,That captures the heavens and conquers to blossomThe roots of delight in the heart of the earth?
Words in this poem
- springtime n.
- The season of spring; springtide.
- lilt v. i.
- To do anything with animation and quickness, as to skip, fly, or hop. [Cf. Norw. lilla, lirla, to sing in a high tone.]
- bulbul n.
- The Persian nightingale (Pycnonotus jocosus). The name is also applied to several other Asiatic singing birds, of the family Timaliidæ. The green bulbuls belong to the Chloropsis and allied genera. [Per.]
- moonbeam n.
- A ray of light from the moon.
- zephyr n.
- The west wind; poetically, any soft, gentle breeze. [L. zephyrus, Gr. zéphyr.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Joy of the Springtime 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, The Joy of the Springtime, in The Bird of Time: Songs of Life, Death & the Spring (1912), text of Wikisource, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/naidu-bird-of-time/the-joy-of-the-springtime.html, id L27529.
Form and metre
The Joy of the Springtime is 12 lines in 2 stanzas of 6 lines each. The metre is anapaestic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See other poems in anapaestic 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 -A-A-A essence · roseA · moonbeam · goesA · maiden · uncloseA
- 2 -A-A-A secret · mirthA · wonder · birthA · blossom · earthA
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 anapaestic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Springtime, O Springtime, what is your essence, | 10 | /··/····/˘ |
| The lilt of a bulbul, the laugh of a rose, | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| The dance of the dew on the wings of a moonbeam, | 12 | ··········/· |
| The voice of the zephyr that sings as he goes, | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| The hope of a bride or the dream of a maiden | 12 | ··········/˘ |
| Watching the petals of gladness unclose? | 10 | /˘·/˘·/˘˘/ |
| Springtime, O Springtime, what is your secret, | 10 | /··/····/˘ |
| The bliss at the core of your magical mirth, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| That quickens the pulse of the morning to wonder | 12 | ·/˘····/˘·/˘ |
| And hastens the seeds of all beauty to birth, | 11 | ·/˘····/˘·· |
| That captures the heavens and conquers to blossom | 12 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘·/˘ |
| The roots of delight in the heart of the earth? | 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.