A-Maying
Now the fields are laughing; now the maidsTake their pastime; laugh the leafy glades:Now the summer days are blooming,And the flowers their chaliced lamps for love illuming.Fruit-trees blossom; woods grow green again;Winter's rage is past: O ye young men,With the May-bloom shake off sadness!Love is luring you to join the maidens' gladness.
Let us then together sport and play;Cytherea bids the young be gay:Laughter soft and happy voices,Hope and love invite to mirth when May rejoices.All the spring is in the lyric next upon my list.
Words in this poem
- pastime n.
- That which amuses, and serves to make time pass agreeably; sport; amusement; diversion. [Pass + time: cf. F. passetemps.]
- chaliced a.
- Having a calyx or cup; cupshaped.
- sadness n.
- Heaviness; firmness.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A-Maying is in the public domain. This text is taken from Wine, Women, and Song Mediaeval Latin Students' songs; Now first translated into English verse, Project Gutenberg ebook #18044; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Addington Symonds, A-Maying, in Wine, Women and Song (1884), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18044, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/symonds-wine-women/a-maying.html, id L11817.
Form and metre
A-Maying is 13 lines in 2 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in trochaic tetrameter. 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.5 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 8% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic tetrameter.
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 AABBCCDD maidsA · gladesA · bloomingB · illumingB · againC · menC · sadnessD · gladnessD
- 2 AABB- playA · gayA · voicesB · rejoicesB · list
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Now the fields are laughing; now the maids | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| Take their pastime; laugh the leafy glades: | 9 | ··/···/˘· |
| Now the summer days are blooming, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| And the flowers their chaliced lamps for love illuming. | 12 | ··/·/˘······ |
| Fruit-trees blossom; woods grow green again; | 9 | ··/˘···˘/ |
| Winter's rage is past: O ye young men, | 9 | /˘······· |
| With the May-bloom shake off sadness! | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Love is luring you to join the maidens' gladness. | 12 | ··/˘····/˘/˘ |
| Let us then together sport and play; | 9 | ···˘/˘··· |
| Cytherea bids the young be gay: | 9 | ·˘/˘····· |
| Laughter soft and happy voices, | 8 | /˘··/˘/˘ |
| Hope and love invite to mirth when May rejoices. | 12 | ···˘/····˘/˘ |
| All the spring is in the lyric next upon my list. | 13 | ······/˘····· |
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.