Laurel · Mary E. Burt · Poems Every Child Should Know

The Voice of Spring

Mary E. Burt (1850–1918) · 1904

iambic pentameter · AABBCC · 30 lines · from Poems Every Child Should Know

I come, I come! ye have called me long;I come o’er the mountains, with light and song.Ye may trace my step o’er the waking earthBy the winds which tell of the violet’s birth,By the primrose stars in the shadowy grass,By the green leaves opening as I pass.

I have breathed on the South, and the chestnut-flowersBy thousands have burst from the forest bowers,And the ancient graves and the fallen fanesAre veiled with wreaths on Italian plains;But it is not for me, in my hour of bloom,To speak of the ruin or the tomb!

I have looked o’er the hills of the stormy North,And the larch has hung all his tassels forth;The fisher is out on the sunny sea,And the reindeer bounds o’er the pastures free,And the pine has a fringe of softer green,And the moss looks bright, where my step has been.

I have sent through the wood-paths a glowing sigh,And called out each voice of the deep blue sky,From the night-bird’s lay through the starry time,In the groves of the soft Hesperian clime,To the swan’s wild note by the Iceland lakes,When the dark fir-branch into verdure breaks.

From the streams and founts I have loosed the chain;They are sweeping on to the silvery main,They are flashing down from the mountain brows,They are flinging spray o’er the forest boughs,They are bursting fresh from their sparry caves,And the earth resounds with the joy of waves.

Words in this poem

veiled a.: Covered by, or as by, a veil; hidden.
sunny a.: Of or pertaining to the sun; proceeding from, or resembling the sun; hence, shining; bright; brilliant; radiant.
starry a.: Abounding with stars; adorned with stars.
hesperian a.: Western; being in the west; occidental. [L. hesperius, fr. hesperus the evening star, Gr. Vesper.]
clime n.: A climate; a tract or region of the earth. See Climate. [L. clima. See Climate.]
sparry a.: Resembling spar, or consisting of spar; abounding with spar; having a confused crystalline structure; spathose. Sparry iron (Min.), siderite. See Siderite (a). [From Spar.]

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

The Voice of Spring is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems Every Child Should Know The What-Every-Child-Should-Know-Library, Project Gutenberg ebook #16436; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.

Cite as: Mary E. Burt, The Voice of Spring, in Poems Every Child Should Know (1904), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16436, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/poems-every-child/the-voice-of-spring.html, id L25296.

Form and metre

The Voice of Spring is 30 lines in 5 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABBCC. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 71%).

See 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 AABBCC long^A · song^A · earth^B · birth^B · grass^C · pass^C
2 AABBCC flowers^A · bowers^A · fanes^B · plains^B · bloom^C · tomb^C
3 AABBCC north^A · forth^A · sea^B · free^B · green^C · been^C
4 AABBCC sigh^A · sky^A · time^B · clime^B · lakes^C · breaks^C
5 AABBCC chain^A · main^A · brows^B · boughs^B · caves^C · waves^C

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
I come, I come! ye have called me long;	10	·······˘··
I come o’er the mountains, with light and song.	10	····/˘····
Ye may trace my step o’er the waking earth	10	·······/˘·
By the winds which tell of the violet’s birth,	10	·······/˘·
By the primrose stars in the shadowy grass,	10	··/····/˘·
By the green leaves opening as I pass.	10	····/˘˘···
I have breathed on the South, and the chestnut-flowers	11	········/·/
By thousands have burst from the forest bowers,	11	·/˘····/˘/˘
And the ancient graves and the fallen fanes	10	··/˘···/˘·
Are veiled with wreaths on Italian plains;	10	··˘···˘/˘·
But it is not for me, in my hour of bloom,	11	········/··
To speak of the ruin or the tomb!	9	····/˘···
I have looked o’er the hills of the stormy North,	11	········/˘·
And the larch has hung all his tassels forth;	10	·······/˘·
The fisher is out on the sunny sea,	10	·/˘····/˘·
And the reindeer bounds o’er the pastures free,	10	··/····/˘·
And the pine has a fringe of softer green,	10	·······/˘·
And the moss looks bright, where my step has been.	10	··········
I have sent through the wood-paths a glowing sigh,	11	········/˘·
And called out each voice of the deep blue sky,	10	··········
From the night-bird’s lay through the starry time,	10	·······/˘·
In the groves of the soft Hesperian clime,	11	······˘/˘˘·
To the swan’s wild note by the Iceland lakes,	10	·······/˘·
When the dark fir-branch into verdure breaks.	10	·······/˘·
From the streams and founts I have loosed the chain;	10	··········
They are sweeping on to the silvery main,	10	··/˘···/˘·
They are flashing down from the mountain brows,	10	··/˘···/˘·
They are flinging spray o’er the forest boughs,	10	··/˘···/˘·
They are bursting fresh from their sparry caves,	10	··/˘···/˘·
And the earth resounds with the joy of waves.	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.

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