My April Lady
When down the stair at morningThe sunbeams round her float,Sweet rivulets of laughterAre rippling in her throat;The gladness of her greetingIs gold without alloy;And in the morning sunlightI think her name is Joy.
When in the evening twilightThe quiet book-room lies,We read the sad old ballads,While from her hidden eyesThe tears are falling, falling,That give her heart relief;And in the evening twilight,I think her name is Grief.
My little April lady,Of sunshine and of showersShe weaves the old spring magic,And my heart breaks in flowers!But when her moods are ended,She nestles like a dove;Then, by the pain and rapture,I know her name is Love.
Words in this poem
- sunshine n.
- The light of the sun, or the place where it shines; the direct rays of the sun, the place where they fall, or the warmth and light which they give.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
My April Lady is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Henry Van Dyke, Project Gutenberg ebook #16229; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Henry Van Dyke, My April Lady, in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16229, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/van-dyke-poems/my-april-lady.html, id L22811.
Form and metre
My April Lady is 24 lines in 3 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
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 -A-A-B-B morning · floatA · laughter · throatA · greeting · alloyB · sunlight · joyB
- 2 AB-B-CAC twilightA · liesB · ballads · eyesB · falling · reliefC · twilightA · griefC
- 3 -A-A-B-B lady · showersA · magic · flowersA · ended · doveB · rapture · loveB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| When down the stair at morning | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| The sunbeams round her float, | 6 | ·/···· |
| Sweet rivulets of laughter | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Are rippling in her throat; | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| The gladness of her greeting | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| Is gold without alloy; | 6 | ····/· |
| And in the morning sunlight | 7 | ···/˘/· |
| I think her name is Joy. | 6 | ······ |
| When in the evening twilight | 7 | ···/˘/· |
| The quiet book-room lies, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| We read the sad old ballads, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| While from her hidden eyes | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The tears are falling, falling, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| That give her heart relief; | 6 | ····˘/ |
| And in the evening twilight, | 7 | ···/˘/· |
| I think her name is Grief. | 6 | ······ |
| My little April lady, | 7 | ·/˘/˘/˘ |
| Of sunshine and of showers | 7 | ·/···/˘ |
| She weaves the old spring magic, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| And my heart breaks in flowers! | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| But when her moods are ended, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| She nestles like a dove; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Then, by the pain and rapture, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| I know her name is Love. | 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.