Youth's Spring-Tribute
On this sweet bank your head thrice sweet and dearI lay, and spread your hair on either side,And see the newborn wood flowers bashful-eyedLook through the golden tresses here and there.On these debateable borders of the yearSpring's foot half falters; scarce she yet may knowThe leafless blackthorn-blossom from the snow;And through her bowers the wind's way still is clear.
But April's sun strikes down the glades to-day;So shut your eyes upturned, and feel my kissCreep, as the Spring now thrills through every spray,Up your warm throat to your warm lips: for thisIs even the hour of Love's sworn suitservice,With whom cold hearts are counted castaway.
Words in this poem
- scarce a.
- Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
- castaway n.
- One who, or that which, is cast away or shipwrecked.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Youth's Spring-Tribute 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, Youth's Spring-Tribute, in The House of Life (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3692, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-house-of-life/youth-s-spring-tribute.html, id L20934.
Form and metre
Youth's Spring-Tribute is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
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 ABBAACCA dearA · sideB · eyedB · thereA · yearA · knowC · snowC · clearA
- 2 ABAB-A dayA · kissB · sprayA · thisB · suitservice · castawayA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| On this sweet bank your head thrice sweet and dear | 10 | ·········· |
| I lay, and spread your hair on either side, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And see the newborn wood flowers bashful-eyed | 10 | ···/˘·//˘· |
| Look through the golden tresses here and there. | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| On these debateable borders of the year | 11 | ······/˘··· |
| Spring's foot half falters; scarce she yet may know | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| The leafless blackthorn-blossom from the snow; | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| And through her bowers the wind's way still is clear. | 10 | ···/······ |
| But April's sun strikes down the glades to-day; | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| So shut your eyes upturned, and feel my kiss | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| Creep, as the Spring now thrills through every spray, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Up your warm throat to your warm lips: for this | 10 | ·········· |
| Is even the hour of Love's sworn suitservice, | 10 | ·/·/······ |
| With whom cold hearts are counted castaway. | 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.