The Spring of 1849
Youthful spring—thou ancient winter'sBeautiful and hopeful son!Wherefore tarry? come! establishO'er the earth thy rightful throne.
Come! O come! thy friends await thee,Looking for thine advent round;Come and gird the azure heaven,Come and deck the emerald ground.
Strengthen thou the feeble twilight,Lead it forth to meet the day,For it sits upon the mountains,Languishing and pale and gray.
O'er the meadows scatter blessings,Flowers of scarlet, gold and blue,Water them with tears of heaven—Joyful tears—in drops of dew.
Call the larks, and they shall teach meHow to welcome thee with song,Such as when I think of childhood,On my wakened memory throng.
Need I ask for wreaths and garlandsThese thou spreadest o'er the land;These are but thy wonted offering,These thou bring'st in either hand.
Yet one thought of melancholyEven thou wilt bring with thee;When I see within the churchyardThe death-gatherings of the free.
Free at last! O let them slumber,O'er them spread a funeral pall,Pile thy flowers upon their grave-heaps,Cover them with garlands all.
Words in this poem
- hopeful a.
- Full of hope, or agreeable expectation; inclined to hope; expectant.
- wherefore adv.
- For which reason; so; -- used relatively. [Where + for.]
- rightful a.
- Righteous; upright; just; good; -- said of persons.
- await v. t.
- To watch for; to look out for. [OF. awaitier, agaitier; (L. ad) + waitier, gaitier to watch, F. guetter. See Wait.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- childhood n.
- The state of being a child; the time in which persons are children; the condition or time from infancy to puberty. [AS. cildhad; cild child + -had. See Child, and hood.]
- wonted a.
- Accustomed; customary; usual.
- churchyard n.
- The ground adjoining a church, in which the dead are buried; a cemetery.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Spring of 1849 is in the public domain. This text is taken from Translations from Alexander Petofi, the Magyar Poet, by Sir John Bowring (London: Trübner & Co., 1866), Internet Archive, the John Bowring translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Sándor Petőfi, The Spring of 1849, in Translations from Alexander Petofi, the Magyar Poet (1866), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petofi-poems-bowring/the-spring-of-1849.html, id L29823.
Form and metre
The Spring of 1849 is 32 lines in 8 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
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.
- 2 -A-A thee · roundA · heaven · groundA
- 3 -A-A twilight · dayA · mountains · grayA
- 4 -A-A blessings · blueA · heaven · dewA
- 5 -A-A me · songA · childhood · throngA
- 6 -A-A garlands · landA · offering · handA
- 7 -A-A melancholy · theeA · churchyard · freeA
- 8 -A-A slumber · pallA · heaps · allA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Youthful spring—thou ancient winter's | 8 | /˘··/˘/˘ |
| Beautiful and hopeful son! | 7 | /˘˘·/˘· |
| Wherefore tarry? come! establish | 8 | /˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| O'er the earth thy rightful throne. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Come! O come! thy friends await thee, | 8 | ·····˘/· |
| Looking for thine advent round; | 7 | /˘··/·· |
| Come and gird the azure heaven, | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Come and deck the emerald ground. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Strengthen thou the feeble twilight, | 8 | /˘··/˘/· |
| Lead it forth to meet the day, | 7 | ······· |
| For it sits upon the mountains, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Languishing and pale and gray. | 7 | /˘˘···· |
| O'er the meadows scatter blessings, | 8 | ··/·/˘/˘ |
| Flowers of scarlet, gold and blue, | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| Water them with tears of heaven— | 8 | /˘····/˘ |
| Joyful tears—in drops of dew. | 7 | /˘····· |
| Call the larks, and they shall teach me | 8 | ········ |
| How to welcome thee with song, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Such as when I think of childhood, | 8 | ······/· |
| On my wakened memory throng. | 8 | ··/˘/˘˘· |
| Need I ask for wreaths and garlands | 8 | ······/˘ |
| These thou spreadest o'er the land; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| These are but thy wonted offering, | 9 | ····/˘/˘˘ |
| These thou bring'st in either hand. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Yet one thought of melancholy | 8 | ····/˘·˘ |
| Even thou wilt bring with thee; | 7 | /˘····· |
| When I see within the churchyard | 8 | ······/· |
| The death-gatherings of the free. | 8 | ··/˘˘··· |
| Free at last! O let them slumber, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| O'er them spread a funeral pall, | 8 | ····/˘˘· |
| Pile thy flowers upon their grave-heaps, | 8 | ··/····· |
| Cover them with garlands all. | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
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.