Spring Quiet
Gone were but the Winter,Come were but the Spring,I would go to a covertWhere the birds sing;
Where in the whitethornSingeth a thrush,And a robin singsIn the holly-bush.
Full of fresh scentsAre the budding boughsArching high overA cool green house:
Full of sweet scents,And whispering airWhich sayeth softly:'We spread no snare;
'Here dwell in safety,Here dwell alone,With a clear streamAnd a mossy stone.
'Here the sun shinethMost shadily;Here is heard an echoOf the far sea,Though far off it be.'
Words in this poem
- dwell v. i.
- To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
- shadily adv.
- In a shady manner.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Spring Quiet is in the public domain. This text is taken from Goblin Market, The Prince's Progress, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #16950; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Christina Rossetti, Spring Quiet, in Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-goblin-market/spring-quiet.html, id L04298.
Form and metre
Spring Quiet is 25 lines in 6 stanzas. The metre is trochaic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 78%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 4.7 syllables. 8 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 40% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic trimeter.
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 winter · springA · covert · singA
- 4 -A-A scents · airA · softly · snareA
- 5 -A-A safety · aloneA · stream · stoneA
- 6 ---AA shineth · shadily · echo · seaA · beA
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Gone were but the Winter, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Come were but the Spring, | 5 | ····· |
| I would go to a covert | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Where the birds sing; | 4 | ···· |
| Where in the whitethorn | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Singeth a thrush, | 4 | /˘·· |
| And a robin sings | 5 | ··/˘· |
| In the holly-bush. | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Full of fresh scents | 4 | ···· |
| Are the budding boughs | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Arching high over | 5 | /˘··· |
| A cool green house: | 4 | ···· |
| Full of sweet scents, | 4 | ···· |
| And whispering air | 5 | ·/˘˘· |
| Which sayeth softly: | 4 | ··/˘ |
| 'We spread no snare; | 4 | ···· |
| 'Here dwell in safety, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Here dwell alone, | 4 | ··˘/ |
| With a clear stream | 4 | ···· |
| And a mossy stone. | 5 | ··/˘· |
| 'Here the sun shineth | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Most shadily; | 4 | ·/˘˘ |
| Here is heard an echo | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Of the far sea, | 4 | ···· |
| Though far off it be.' | 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.