Analysis of April
John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 (Haverhill) – 1892 (Hampton Falls)
'T is the noon of the spring-time, yet never a bird
In the wind-shaken elm or the maple is heard;
For green meadow-grasses wide levels of snow,
And blowing of drifts where the crocus should blow;
Where wind-flower and violet, amber and white,
On south-sloping brooksides should smile in the light,
O'er the cold winter-beds of their late-waking roots
The frosty flake eddies, the ice-crystal shoots;
And, longing for light, under wind-driven heaps,
Round the boles of the pine-wood the ground-laurel creeps,
Unkissed of the sunshine, unbaptized of showers,
With buds scarcely swelled, which should burst into flowers
We wait for thy coming, sweet wind of the south!
For the touch of thy light wings, the kiss of thy mouth;
For the yearly evangel thou bearest from God,
Resurrection and life to the graves of the sod!
Up our long river-valley, for days, have not ceased
The wail and the shriek of the bitter northeast,
Raw and chill, as if winnowed through ices and snow,
All the way from the land of the wild Esquimau,
Until all our dreams of the land of the blest,
Like that red hunter's, turn to the sunny southwest.
O soul of the spring-time, its light and its breath,
Bring warmth to this coldness, bring life to this death;
Renew the great miracle; let us behold
The stone from the mouth of the sepulchre rolled,
And Nature, like Lazarus, rise, as of old!
Let our faith, which in darkness and coldness has lain,
Revive with the warmth and the brightness again,
And in blooming of flower and budding of tree
The symbols and types of our destiny see;
The life of the spring-time, the life of the whole,
And, as sun to the sleeping earth, love to the soul!
Scheme | AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIBJKKLLMMMNOPPQQ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101101111001 001101101011 1111011011 01011101011 111001001001 1110111001 1001101111101 01011001101 01011101101 101101101101 11011110 111011110110 11111011101 101111101111 101011111 01001101101 1101101011111 0100110101 10111111001 1011011011 011101101101 11110110101 11101111011 11111011111 01011001101 011011011 01011001111 1101101001011 01101001001 001011001011 010011101001 01101101101 011101011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,634 |
Words | 296 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 33 |
Lines Amount | 33 |
Letters per line (avg) | 39 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,298 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 294 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 15, 2023
- 1:29 min read
- 127 Views
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"April" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/22846/april>.
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