A Spring Ditty
In the spring, ah happy day!Underneath a leafy sprayWith her sister stands my may.O sweet love!He who now is reft of theePoor is he!
Ah, the trees, how fair they flowerBirds are singing in the bower;Maidens feel of love the power.O sweet love!
See the lilies, how they blow!And the maidens row by rowPraise the best of gods below.O sweet love!
If I held my sweetheart now,In the wood beneath the bough,I would kiss her, lip and brow.O sweet love!He who now is reft of thee,Poor is he!
Words in this poem
- reft n.
- A chink; a rift. See Rift. Rom. of R.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Spring Ditty 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 Spring Ditty, in Wine, Women and Song (1884), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18044, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/symonds-wine-women/a-spring-ditty.html, id L11824.
Form and metre
A Spring Ditty is 20 lines in 4 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 60% of the lines. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.0 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 20% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in rhyming couplets, 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 AAA-BB dayA · sprayA · mayA · love · theeB · heB
- 2 AAA- flowerA · bowerA · powerA · love
- 3 AAA- blowA · rowA · belowA · love
- 4 AAA-BB nowA · boughA · browA · love · theeB · heB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| In the spring, ah happy day! | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Underneath a leafy spray | 7 | ·˘/·/˘· |
| With her sister stands my may. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| O sweet love! | 3 | ··· |
| He who now is reft of thee | 7 | ······· |
| Poor is he! | 3 | ··· |
| Ah, the trees, how fair they flower | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Birds are singing in the bower; | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Maidens feel of love the power. | 8 | /˘····/˘ |
| O sweet love! | 3 | ··· |
| See the lilies, how they blow! | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| And the maidens row by row | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Praise the best of gods below. | 7 | ······· |
| O sweet love! | 3 | ··· |
| If I held my sweetheart now, | 7 | ····/·· |
| In the wood beneath the bough, | 7 | ······· |
| I would kiss her, lip and brow. | 7 | ······· |
| O sweet love! | 3 | ··· |
| He who now is reft of thee, | 7 | ······· |
| Poor is he! | 3 | ··· |
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.