Spring Song (in the expected manner)
Enter April, laughingly,Blossoms in her tumbled hair,High of heart, and fancy-free--When was maiden half so fair?Bright her eyes with easy tears,Wanton-sweet, her smiles for men."Winter's gone," she cries, "and here'sSpring again."
When we loved, 'twas April, too;Madcap April--urged us on.Just as she did, so did you--Sighed, and smiled, and then were gone.How she plied her pretty arts,How she laughed and sparkled then!April, make love in our heartsSpring again!
Words in this poem
- laughingly adv.
- With laughter or merriment.
- madcap a.
- Inclined to wild sports; delighting in rash, absurd, or dangerous amusements.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Spring Song (in the expected manner) is in the public domain. This text is taken from Enough Rope: Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #68353; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Dorothy Parker, Spring Song (in the expected manner), in Enough Rope (1926), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #68353, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/parker-enough-rope/spring-song-in-the-expected-manner.html, id L27375.
Form and metre
Spring Song (in the expected manner) is 16 lines in 2 stanzas of 8 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABABCDCD. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 96%).
See other poems in trochaic 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 ABABCDCD laughinglyA · hairB · freeA · fairB · tearsC · menD · here'sC · againD
- 2 ABABCDCD tooA · onB · youA · goneB · artsC · thenD · heartsC · againD
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Enter April, laughingly, | 7 | /˘/˘/˘˘ |
| Blossoms in her tumbled hair, | 8 | /˘··/˘˘· |
| High of heart, and fancy-free-- | 7 | ····/˘· |
| When was maiden half so fair? | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Bright her eyes with easy tears, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Wanton-sweet, her smiles for men. | 7 | /˘····· |
| "Winter's gone," she cries, "and here's | 7 | /˘····· |
| Spring again." | 3 | ·˘/ |
| When we loved, 'twas April, too; | 8 | ···˘·/˘· |
| Madcap April--urged us on. | 8 | /·/˘·˘·· |
| Just as she did, so did you-- | 7 | ······· |
| Sighed, and smiled, and then were gone. | 8 | ·˘······ |
| How she plied her pretty arts, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| How she laughed and sparkled then! | 8 | ···˘·/˘· |
| April, make love in our hearts | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| Spring again! | 3 | ·˘/ |
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.