Barren Spring
So now the changed year's turning wheel returnsAnd as a girl sails balanced in the wind,And now before and now again behindStoops as it swoops, with cheek that laughs and burns,--So Spring comes merry towards me now, but earnsNo answering smile from me, whose life is twin'dWith the dead boughs that winter still must bind,And whom to-day the Spring no more concerns.
Behold, this crocus is a withering flame;This snowdrop, snow; this apple-blossom's partTo breed the fruit that breeds the serpent's art.Nay, for these Spring-flowers, turn thy face from them,Nor gaze till on the year's last lily-stemThe white cup shrivels round the golden heart.
Words in this poem
- withering a.
- Tending to wither; causing to shrink or fade.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Barren Spring is in the public domain. This text is taken from The House of Life, Project Gutenberg ebook #3692; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Barren Spring, in The House of Life (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3692, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-house-of-life/barren-spring.html, id L20999.
Form and metre
Barren Spring is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
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 ABBAABBA returnsA · windB · behindB · burnsA · earnsA · twin'dB · bindB · concernsA
- 2 -AABBA flame · partA · artA · themB · stemB · heartA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| So now the changed year's turning wheel returns | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| And as a girl sails balanced in the wind, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And now before and now again behind | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Stoops as it swoops, with cheek that laughs and burns,-- | 10 | ·········· |
| So Spring comes merry towards me now, but earns | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| No answering smile from me, whose life is twin'd | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| With the dead boughs that winter still must bind, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And whom to-day the Spring no more concerns. | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Behold, this crocus is a withering flame; | 10 | ˘/·/˘··/˘· |
| This snowdrop, snow; this apple-blossom's part | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| To breed the fruit that breeds the serpent's art. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Nay, for these Spring-flowers, turn thy face from them, | 10 | ····/····· |
| Nor gaze till on the year's last lily-stem | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The white cup shrivels round the golden heart. | 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.