Song to a Fair Young Lady, going out of the Town in the Spring
Ask not the cause why sullen SpringSo long delays her flowers to bear;Why warbling birds forget to sing,And winter storms invert the year:Chloris is gone; and fate providesTo make it Spring where she resides.
Chloris is gone, the cruel fair;She cast not back a pitying eye:But left her lover in despairTo sigh, to languish, and to die:Ah! how can those fair eyes endureTo give the wounds they will not cure?
Great God of Love, why hast thou madeA face that can all hearts command,That all religions can invade,And change the laws of every land?Where thou hadst plac’d such power before,Thou shouldst have made her mercy more.
When Chloris to the temple comes,Adoring crowds before her fall;She can restore the dead from tombsAnd every life but mine recall.I only am by Love design’dTo be the victim for mankind.
Words in this poem
- sullen a.
- Lonely; solitary; desolate. Wyclif (Job iii. 14). [OE. solein, solain, lonely, sullen; through Old French fr. (assumed) LL. solanus solitary, fr. L. solus alone. See Sole, a.]
- pitying a.
- Expressing pity; as, a pitying eye, glance, or word.
- languish v. i.
- To cause to dr Shak.
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Song to a Fair Young Lady, going out of the Town in the Spring is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900, Project Gutenberg ebook #66619; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Dryden, Song to a Fair Young Lady, going out of the Town in the Spring, in Poems (1631–1700), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/obev-john-dryden/song-to-a-fair-young-lady-going-out-of-the-town-.html, id L16122.
Form and metre
Song to a Fair Young Lady, going out of the Town in the Spring is 24 lines in 4 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABCC, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 29% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 springA · bearB · singA · yearB · providesC · residesC
- 2 ABABCC fairA · eyeB · despairA · dieB · endureC · cureC
- 3 ABABCC madeA · commandB · invadeA · landB · beforeC · moreC
- 4 -A-ABB comes · fallA · tombs · recallA · design'dB · mankindB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Ask not the cause why sullen Spring | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| So long delays her flowers to bear; | 8 | ··˘/·/·· |
| Why warbling birds forget to sing, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| And winter storms invert the year: | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| Chloris is gone; and fate provides | 8 | /˘····˘/ |
| To make it Spring where she resides. | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Chloris is gone, the cruel fair; | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| She cast not back a pitying eye: | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| But left her lover in despair | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| To sigh, to languish, and to die: | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Ah! how can those fair eyes endure | 8 | ······˘/ |
| To give the wounds they will not cure? | 8 | ········ |
| Great God of Love, why hast thou made | 8 | ········ |
| A face that can all hearts command, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| That all religions can invade, | 8 | ··˘/˘·˘/ |
| And change the laws of every land? | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Where thou hadst plac’d such power before, | 8 | ·····/·· |
| Thou shouldst have made her mercy more. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| When Chloris to the temple comes, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Adoring crowds before her fall; | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
| She can restore the dead from tombs | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| And every life but mine recall. | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| I only am by Love design’d | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| To be the victim for mankind. | 8 | ···/˘·// |
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.