Analysis of The Great May



Who said the Spring was dead?
She would not come again,
Dust on her starry head,
For a sad world in pain?
The thing they have said in vain,
She comes new garlanded:
Lovely on hill and plain
Her lights, her flowers are shed.

Never was such a May!
Mercy of God, to prove
Life springs from the clay
And every treasured love
Walks in a heavenly grove.
The Lord God's holiday
To the soft coo of the dove
With the young lambs at play.

Lo! yours, and yours, are there,
I see them leap and run
In a May-world past compare
Whereof our God is sun.
They rejoice, yea, every one
In the ambient light and air,
Their pleasures are not done
From morn till evening star.

Never was such a Spring!
Oh, you whose eyes are wet,
Listen, take comforting,
Our God does not forget.
Poor folk that fear and fret
Your hours are on the wing
To the loves that wait you yet,
Raised up and triumphing.


Scheme AXABBABA CXCDXCDC EFEFFEFX GHGHHGHG
Poetic Form
Metre 110111 111101 110101 101101 0111101 1111 101101 0101011 101101 101111 11101 0100101 1001001 01110 1011101 101111 110111 111101 0011101 110111 10111001 00100101 110111 111101 101101 111111 101100 1011101 111101 1101101 1011111 1101
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 848
Words 172
Sentences 13
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8, 8
Lines Amount 32
Letters per line (avg) 21
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 168
Words per stanza (avg) 43
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

51 sec read
85

Katharine Tynan

Katharine Tynan was an Irish-born writer, known mainly for her novels and poetry. more…

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    A figure of speech that compares two unlike things using "like" or "as" is called a _______.
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    B personification
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