The Return of Spring
Spring returns, the glad new-comer,Bringing pleasure, banning pain:Meadows bloom with early summer,And the sun shines out again:All sad thoughts and passions vanish;Plenteous Summer comes to banishWinter with his starveling train.
Hails and snows and frosts togetherMelt and thaw like dews away;While the spring in cloudless weatherSucks the breast of jocund May;Sad's the man and born for sorrowWho can live not, dares not borrowGladness from a summer's day.
Full of joy and jubilation,Drunk with honey of delight,Are the lads whose aspirationIs the palm of Cupid's fight!Youths, we'll keep the laws of Venus,And with joy and mirth between usLive and love like Paris wight!
Words in this poem
- starveling n.
- One who, or that which, pines from lack or food, or nutriment. [Starve + -ling.]
- thaw v. i.
- To melt, dissolve, or become fluid; to soften; -- said of that which is frozen; as, the ice thaws.
- cloudless a.
- Without a cloud; clear; bright.
- jocund
- Merry; cheerful; gay; airy; lively; sportive. [L. jocundus, jucundus, orig., helpful, fr. juvare to help. See Aid.]
- borrow v. t.
- To receive from another as a loan, with the implied or expressed intention of returning the identical article or its equivalent in kind; -- the opposite of lend. [OE. borwen, AS. borgian, fr. borg, borh, pledge; akin to D. borg, G. borg; prob. fr. root of AS. beorgan to protect. Borough.]
- jubilation n.
- A triumphant shouting; rejoicing; exultation. [L. jubilatio: cf. F. jubilation.]
- aspiration n.
- The act of aspirating; the pronunciation of a letter with a full or strong emission of breath; an aspirated sound. [L. aspiratio, fr. aspirare: cf. F. aspiration.]
- wight n.
- A whit; a bit; a jot. [OE. wight, wiht, a wight, a whit, AS. wiht, wuht, a creature, a thing; skin to D. wicht a child, OS. & OHG. wiht a creature, thing, G. wicht a creature, Icel. v]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Return of 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 Return of Spring, in Wine, Women and Song (1884), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18044, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/symonds-wine-women/the-return-of-spring.html, id L11818.
Form and metre
The Return of Spring is 21 lines in 3 stanzas of 7 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABCCB, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.6 syllables. 10 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 33% 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 ABABCCB comerA · painB · summerA · againB · vanishC · banishC · trainB
- 2 ABAB--B togetherA · awayB · weatherA · mayB · sorrow · borrow · dayB
- 3 ABABCCB jubilationA · delightB · aspirationA · fightB · venusC · usC · wightB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Spring returns, the glad new-comer, | 8 | ·˘/···/˘ |
| Bringing pleasure, banning pain: | 7 | /˘/˘/˘· |
| Meadows bloom with early summer, | 8 | /···/˘/˘ |
| And the sun shines out again: | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| All sad thoughts and passions vanish; | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Plenteous Summer comes to banish | 9 | /˘˘/˘··/˘ |
| Winter with his starveling train. | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Hails and snows and frosts together | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| Melt and thaw like dews away; | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| While the spring in cloudless weather | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Sucks the breast of jocund May; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Sad's the man and born for sorrow | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Who can live not, dares not borrow | 8 | ······/· |
| Gladness from a summer's day. | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Full of joy and jubilation, | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| Drunk with honey of delight, | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| Are the lads whose aspiration | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| Is the palm of Cupid's fight! | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Youths, we'll keep the laws of Venus, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| And with joy and mirth between us | 8 | ········ |
| Live and love like Paris wight! | 7 | ····/˘· |
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.