Spring
I walk and I wonderTo hear the birds sing;Without you, my lady,How can there be Spring?I see the pink blossomsThat slept for a year,But who could have waked themWhile you were not near?
Birds sing to the blossoms,Blind, dreaming your pink;These blush to the songsters,Your music they think:So well had you taught themTo look and to sing,Your bloom and your music,The ways of the Spring.
About this text
Spring is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems by Isaac Rosenberg, Project Gutenberg ebook #66889; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Isaac Rosenberg, Spring, in Poems (1922), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66889, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rosenberg-poems/spring.html, id L02514.
Form and metre
Spring is 16 lines in 2 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is anapaestic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.5 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in anapaestic dimeter.
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 -A-A-B-B wonder · singA · lady · springA · blossoms · yearB · them · nearB
- 2 -A-A-B-B blossoms · pinkA · songsters · thinkA · them · singB · music · springB
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 anapaestic dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I walk and I wonder | 6 | ····/˘ |
| To hear the birds sing; | 5 | ····· |
| Without you, my lady, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| How can there be Spring? | 5 | ····· |
| I see the pink blossoms | 6 | ····/˘ |
| That slept for a year, | 5 | ····· |
| But who could have waked them | 6 | ······ |
| While you were not near? | 5 | ····· |
| Birds sing to the blossoms, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Blind, dreaming your pink; | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| These blush to the songsters, | 6 | ······ |
| Your music they think: | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| So well had you taught them | 6 | ······ |
| To look and to sing, | 5 | ····· |
| Your bloom and your music, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| The ways of the Spring. | 5 | ····· |
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.