Spring
A spring wind on the Bowery,Blowing the fluff of night sheltersOff bedraggled garments,And agitating the gutters, that eject little spirals of vaporLike lewd growths.
Bare-legged children stamp in the puddles, splashing each other,One--with a choir-boy's faceTwits me as I pass...The word, like a muddied drop,Seems to roll over and not out ofThe bowed lips,Yet dewy redAnd sweetly immature.
People sniff the air with an upward look--Even the mite of a girlWho never plays...Her mother smiles at herWith eyes like vacant lotsRimming vistas of mean streetsAnd endless washing days...Yet with sun on the linesAnd a drying breeze.
The old candy womanShivers in the young wind.Her eyes--littered with memoriesLike ancient garrets,Or dusty unaired rooms where someone died--Ask nothing of the spring.
But a pale pink dreamTrembles about this young girl's body,Draping it like a glowing aura.
She gloats in a mirrorOver her gaudy hat,With its flower God never thought of...
And the dream, unrestrained,Floats about the loins of a soldier,Where it quivers a moment,Warming to a crimsonLike the scarf of a toreador...
But the delicate gossamer breaks at his contactAnd recoils to her in strands of shattered rose.
Words in this poem
- bowery a.
- Shading, like a bower; full of bowers.
- fluff n.
- Nap or down; flue; soft, downy feathers.
- lewd a.
- Not clerical; laic; laical; hence, unlearned; simple. [OE.lewed, lewd, lay, ignorant, vile, AS. l laical, belonging to the laity.]
- aura n.
- Any subtile, invisible emanation, effluvium, or exhalation from a substance, as the aroma of flowers, the odor of the blood, a supposed fertilizing emanation from the pollen of flowers, etc.
- gossamer n.
- A fine, filmy substance, like cobwebs, floating in the air, in calm, clear weather, especially in autumn. It is seen in stubble fields and on furze or low bushes, and is formed by small spiders. [OE. gossomer, gossummer, gosesomer, perh. for goose summer, from its downy appearance, or perh. for God's summer, cf. G. mariengarr gossamer, properly Mary's ya]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Spring is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Ghetto, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #4332; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Lola Ridge, Spring, in The Ghetto, and Other Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #4332, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/ridge-ghetto/spring.html, id L20875.
Form and metre
Spring is 41 lines in 8 stanzas.
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.
- 3 --A---A-- look · girl · playsA · her · lots · streets · daysA · lines · breeze
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| A spring wind on the Bowery, | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| Blowing the fluff of night shelters | 8 | /˘····/˘ |
| Off bedraggled garments, | 6 | ·˘/˘/˘ |
| And agitating the gutters, that eject little spirals of vapor | 18 | ·/˘·˘·/˘·˘//˘/˘·/˘ |
| Like lewd growths. | 3 | ··· |
| Bare-legged children stamp in the puddles, splashing each other, | 15 | ·/˘/˘···/˘/˘·/˘ |
| One--with a choir-boy's face | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| Twits me as I pass... | 5 | ····· |
| The word, like a muddied drop, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Seems to roll over and not out of | 9 | ········· |
| The bowed lips, | 3 | ··· |
| Yet dewy red | 4 | ·/˘· |
| And sweetly immature. | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| People sniff the air with an upward look-- | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| Even the mite of a girl | 7 | /˘····· |
| Who never plays... | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Her mother smiles at her | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| With eyes like vacant lots | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Rimming vistas of mean streets | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| And endless washing days... | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Yet with sun on the lines | 6 | ······ |
| And a drying breeze. | 5 | ··/˘· |
| The old candy woman | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| Shivers in the young wind. | 6 | /˘···· |
| Her eyes--littered with memories | 8 | ··/˘·/˘˘ |
| Like ancient garrets, | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| Or dusty unaired rooms where someone died-- | 10 | ·/˘····/·· |
| Ask nothing of the spring. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| But a pale pink dream | 5 | ····· |
| Trembles about this young girl's body, | 9 | /˘·····/˘ |
| Draping it like a glowing aura. | 9 | /˘···/˘/˘ |
| She gloats in a mirror | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Over her gaudy hat, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| With its flower God never thought of... | 9 | ··/˘·/˘·· |
| And the dream, unrestrained, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Floats about the loins of a soldier, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Where it quivers a moment, | 7 | ··/˘·/˘ |
| Warming to a crimson | 6 | /˘··/˘ |
| Like the scarf of a toreador... | 9 | ·····/˘˘˘ |
| But the delicate gossamer breaks at his contact | 13 | ··/˘˘/˘˘···/· |
| And recoils to her in strands of shattered rose. | 11 | ·˘/·····/˘· |
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.