The Love-Letter in Spring
Now the sun is streaming,Clear and pure his ray;April's glad face beamingOn our earth to-day.Unto love returnethEvery gentle mind;And the boy-god burnethJocund hearts to bind.
All this budding beauty,Festival array,Lays on us the dutyTo be blithe and gay.Trodden ways are known, love!And in this thy youth,To retain thy own loveWere but faith and truth.
In faith love me solely,Mark the faith of me,From thy whole heart wholly,From the soul of thee.At this time of bliss, dear,I am far away;Those who love like this, dear,Suffer every day!
Words in this poem
- streaming a.
- Sending forth streams.
- jocund
- Merry; cheerful; gay; airy; lively; sportive. [L. jocundus, jucundus, orig., helpful, fr. juvare to help. See Aid.]
- blithe a.
- Gay; merry; sprightly; joyous; glad; cheerful; as, a blithe spirit. [AS. bli blithe, kind; akin to Goth. blei kind, Icel. bli mild, gentle, Dan. & Sw. blid gentle, D. blijd blithe, OHG. blidi kind, blithe.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Love-Letter in Spring 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, The Love-Letter in Spring, in Wine, Women and Song (1884), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18044, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/symonds-wine-women/the-love-letter-in-spring.html, id L11823.
Form and metre
The Love-Letter in Spring is 24 lines in 3 stanzas of 8 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABCDCD, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is trochaic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.6 syllables. 8 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 21% 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 ABABCDCD streamingA · rayB · beamingA · dayB · returnethC · mindD · burnethC · bindD
- 2 ABABCDCD beautyA · arrayB · dutyA · gayB · loveC · youthD · loveC · truthD
- 3 -A-ABCBC solely · meA · wholly · theeA · dearB · awayC · dearB · dayC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Now the sun is streaming, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Clear and pure his ray; | 5 | ····· |
| April's glad face beaming | 6 | /˘··/˘ |
| On our earth to-day. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Unto love returneth | 6 | ···˘/˘ |
| Every gentle mind; | 6 | /˘˘/˘· |
| And the boy-god burneth | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Jocund hearts to bind. | 5 | /˘··· |
| All this budding beauty, | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| Festival array, | 5 | /˘˘˘/ |
| Lays on us the duty | 6 | ····/˘ |
| To be blithe and gay. | 5 | ····· |
| Trodden ways are known, love! | 6 | /˘···· |
| And in this thy youth, | 5 | ····· |
| To retain thy own love | 6 | ·˘/··· |
| Were but faith and truth. | 5 | ····· |
| In faith love me solely, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Mark the faith of me, | 5 | ····· |
| From thy whole heart wholly, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| From the soul of thee. | 5 | ····· |
| At this time of bliss, dear, | 6 | ······ |
| I am far away; | 5 | ···˘/ |
| Those who love like this, dear, | 6 | ······ |
| Suffer every day! | 6 | /˘/˘˘· |
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.