Returning Spring Brings to Him Only Increase of Grief (Woodhouselee)
Returning Zephyr the sweet season brings,With flowers and herbs his breathing train among,And Progne twitters, Philomela sings,Leading the many-colour'd spring along;Serene the sky, and fair the laughing field,Jove views his daughter with complacent brow;Earth, sea, and air, to Love's sweet influence yield,And creatures all his magic power avow:But nought, alas! for me the season brings,Save heavier sighs, from my sad bosom drawnBy her who can from heaven unlock its springs;And warbling birds and flower-bespangled lawn,And fairest acts of ladies fair and mild,A desert seem, and its brute tenants wild.
Words in this poem
- zephyr n.
- The west wind; poetically, any soft, gentle breeze. [L. zephyrus, Gr. zéphyr.]
- philomela n.
- The nightingale; philomel.
- jove n.
- The chief divinity of the ancient Romans; Jupiter. [L. Jupiter, gen. Jovis, OL. Jovis, nom. & gen. for Djovis; akin to E. Tuesday. See Tuesday, and cf. Jupiter.]
- avow v. t.
- To bind, or to devote, by a vow. Wyclif. [OF. avouer, fr. LL. votare to vow, fr. L. votun. See Vote, n.]
- unlock v. t.
- To unfasten, as what is locked; as, to unlock a door or a chest. [Cf. AS. unl. See 1st Un-, and Lock, v. t.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Returning Spring Brings to Him Only Increase of Grief (Woodhouselee) is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, the various hands 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: Petrarch, Returning Spring Brings to Him Only Increase of Grief (Woodhouselee), in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/returning-spring-brings-to-him-only-increase-of-grief-woodhouselee.html, id L14910.
Form and metre
Returning Spring Brings to Him Only Increase of Grief (Woodhouselee) is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAABBACDCDCD, the pattern of the Italian sonnet. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
See other Italian sonnets, 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 ABBAABBACDCDCD bringsA · amongB · singsB · alongA · fieldA · browB · yieldB · avowA · bringsC · drawnD · springsC · lawnD · mildC · wildD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Returning Zephyr the sweet season brings, | 10 | ˘/˘/˘··/˘· |
| With flowers and herbs his breathing train among, | 10 | ·/···/˘··· |
| And Progne twitters, Philomela sings, | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| Leading the many-colour'd spring along; | 10 | /˘·/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Serene the sky, and fair the laughing field, | 10 | ˘/·····/˘· |
| Jove views his daughter with complacent brow; | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| Earth, sea, and air, to Love's sweet influence yield, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And creatures all his magic power avow: | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘/ |
| But nought, alas! for me the season brings, | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| Save heavier sighs, from my sad bosom drawn | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| By her who can from heaven unlock its springs; | 10 | ·····/˘/·· |
| And warbling birds and flower-bespangled lawn, | 10 | ·/˘˘··/··· |
| And fairest acts of ladies fair and mild, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| A desert seem, and its brute tenants wild. | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
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.