I dream’d there would be Spring no more
I dream’d there would be Spring no more,That Nature’s ancient power was lost:The streets were black with smoke and frost,They chatter’d trifles at the door.
I wander’d from the noisy town,I found a wood with thorny boughs:I took the thorns to bind my brows,I wore them like a civic crown.
I met with scoffs, I met with scornsFrom youth and babe and hoary hairs:They call’d me in the public squaresThe fool that wears a crown of thorns.
They call’d me fool, they call’d me child:I found an angel of the night:The voice was low, the look was bright,He look’d upon my crown and smiled:
He reach’d the glory of a hand,That seem’d to touch it into leaf:The voice was not the voice of grief;The words were hard to understand.
Words in this poem
- civic a.
- Relating to, or derived from, a city or citizen; relating to man as a member of society, or to civil affairs. Civic crown (Rom. [L.civicus, fr. civis citizen. See City.]
- babe n.
- An infant; a young child of either sex; a baby. [Cf. Ir. bab, baban, W. baban, maban.]
- hoary a.
- White or whitish."The hoary willows."
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
I dream’d there would be Spring no more is in the public domain. This text is taken from In memoriam, Project Gutenberg ebook #70950; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Alfred Tennyson, I dream’d there would be Spring no more, in In Memoriam A.H.H. (1850), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tennyson-in-memoriam/section-67.html, id L18427.
Form and metre
I dream’d there would be Spring no more is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABBA. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 97%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 10% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic 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 ABBA moreA · lostB · frostB · doorA
- 2 ABBA townA · boughsB · browsB · crownA
- 3 ABBA scornsA · hairsB · squaresB · thornsA
- 4 ABBA childA · nightB · brightB · smiledA
- 5 ABBA handA · leafB · griefB · understandA
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I dream’d there would be Spring no more, | 8 | ········ |
| That Nature’s ancient power was lost: | 8 | ·/˘/˘/·· |
| The streets were black with smoke and frost, | 8 | ········ |
| They chatter’d trifles at the door. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| I wander’d from the noisy town, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| I found a wood with thorny boughs: | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| I took the thorns to bind my brows, | 8 | ········ |
| I wore them like a civic crown. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| I met with scoffs, I met with scorns | 8 | ········ |
| From youth and babe and hoary hairs: | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| They call’d me in the public squares | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The fool that wears a crown of thorns. | 8 | ········ |
| They call’d me fool, they call’d me child: | 8 | ········ |
| I found an angel of the night: | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The voice was low, the look was bright, | 8 | ········ |
| He look’d upon my crown and smiled: | 8 | ········ |
| He reach’d the glory of a hand, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| That seem’d to touch it into leaf: | 8 | ········ |
| The voice was not the voice of grief; | 8 | ········ |
| The words were hard to understand. | 8 | ······˘/ |
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.