Analysis of Spring
Henry Timrod 1828 (Charleston) – 1867 (Columbia)
Spring, with that nameless pathos in the air
Which dwells with all things fair,
Spring, with her golden suns and silver rain,
Is with us once again.
Out in the lonely woods the jasmine burns
Its fragrant lamps, and turns
Into a royal court with green festoons
The banks of dark lagoons.
In the deep heart of every forest tree
The blood is all aglee,
And there's a look about the leafless bowers
As if they dreamed of flowers.
Yet still on every side we trace the hand
Of Winter in the land,
Save where the maple reddens on the lawn,
Flushed by the season's dawn;
Or where, like those strange semblances we find
That age to childhood bind,
The elm puts on, as if in Nature's scorn,
The brown of Autumn corn.
As yet the turf is dark, although you know
That, not a span below,
A thousand germs are groping through the gloom,
And soon will burst their tomb.
Already, here and there, on frailest stems
Appear some azure gems,
Small as might deck, upon a gala day,
The forehead of a fay.
In gardens you may note amid the dearth
The crocus breaking earth;
And near the snowdrop's tender white and green,
The violet in its screen.
But many gleams and shadows need must pass
Along the budding grass,
And weeks go by, before the enamored South
Shall kiss the rose's mouth.
Still there's a sense of blossoms yet unborn
In the sweet airs of morn;
One almost looks to see the very street
Grow purple at his feet.
At times a fragrant breeze comes floating by,
And brings, you know not why,
A feeling as when eager crowds await
Before a palace gate
Some wondrous pageant; and you scarce would start,
If from a beech's heart,
A blue-eyed Dryad, stepping forth, should say,
"Behold me! I am May!"
Ah! who would couple thoughts of war and crime
With such a bless|"ed time!
Who in the west wind's aromatic breath
Could hear the call of Death!
Yet not more surely shall the Spring awake
The voice of wood and brake,
Than she shall rouse, for all her tranquil charms,
A million men to arms.
There shall be deeper hues upon her plains
Than all her sunlit rains,
And every gladdening influence around,
Can summon from the ground.
Oh! standing on this desecrated mould,
Methinks that I behold,
Lifting her bloody daisies up to God,
Spring kneeling on the sod,
And calling, with the voice of all her rills,
Upon the ancient hills
To fall and crush the tyrants and the slaves
Who turn her meads to graves.
Scheme | AAXX BBBX XCDD EEFF GGHH XCII JJKK LLMM NNOO HHPP QQRR SSKK TTUU VVWW XXYY ZZ1 1 BX2 2 |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (82%) |
Metre | 1111010001 111111 1101010101 111101 1001010101 110101 010101111 011101 00111100101 01111 01010101010 1111110 11110011101 110001 110101101 110101 11111111 11111 0111110101 011101 110111111 110101 0101110101 011111 010101111 011101 1111010101 010101 0101110101 010101 010110101 0100011 110101111 010101 01110100101 110101 1101110111 001111 111110101 110111 1101011101 011111 0101110101 010101 1101001111 11011 011110111 011111 1111011101 110111 100110101 110111 1111010101 011101 1111110101 010111 1111010101 11011 0100110001 110101 1101100101 11101 1001010111 110101 0101011101 010101 1101010001 110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,321 |
Words | 443 |
Sentences | 19 |
Stanzas | 17 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 68 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 110 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 26 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 13, 2023
- 2:15 min read
- 89 Views
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"Spring" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/18271/spring>.
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