Analysis of Primroses
I
Latest, earliest of the year,
Primroses that still were here,
Snugly nestling round the boles
Of the cut-down chestnut poles,
When December's tottering tread
Rustled 'mong the deep leaves dead,
And with confident young faces
Peeped from out the sheltered places
When pale January lay
In its cradle day by day,
Dead or living, hard to say;
Now that mid-March blows and blusters,
Out you steal in tufts and clusters,
Making leafless lane and wood
Vernal with your hardihood.
Other lovely things are rare,
You are prodigal as fair.
First you come by ones and ones,
Lastly in battalions,
Skirmish along hedge and bank,
Turn old Winter's wavering flank,
Round his flying footsteps hover,
Seize on hollow, ridge, and cover,
Leave nor slope nor hill unharried,
Till, his snowy trenches carried,
O'er his sepulchre you laugh,
Winter's joyous epitaph.
II
This, too, be your glory great,
Primroses, you do not wait,
As the other flowers do,
For the Spring to smile on you,
But with coming are content,
Asking no encouragement.
Ere the hardy crocus cleaves
Sunny border 'neath the eaves,
Ere the thrush his song rehearse,
Sweeter than all poets' verse,
Ere the early bleating lambs
Cling like shadows to their dams,
Ere the blackthorn breaks to white,
Snowy-hooded anchorite;
Out from every hedge you look,
You are bright by every brook,
Wearing for your sole defence
Fearlessness of innocence.
While the daffodils still waver,
Ere the jonquil gets its savour,
While the linnets yet but pair,
You are fledged, and everywhere.
Nought can daunt you, nought distress,
Neither cold nor sunlessness.
You, when Lent sleet flies apace,
Look the tempest in the face;
As descend the flakes more slow,
From your eyelids shake the snow,
And when all the clouds have flown,
Meet the sun's smile with your own.
Nothing ever makes you less
Gracious to ungraciousness.
March may bluster up and down,
Pettish April sulk and frown;
Closer to their skirts you cling,
Coaxing Winter to be Spring.
III
Then when your sweet task is done,
And the wild-flowers, one by one,
Here, there, everywhere do blow,
Primroses, you haste to go,
Satisfied with what you bring,
Fading morning-stars of Spring.
You have brightened doubtful days,
You have sweetened long delays,
Fooling our enchanted reason
To miscalculate the season.
But when doubt and fear are fled,
When the kine leave wintry shed,
And 'mid grasses green and tall
Find their fodder, make their stall;
When the wintering swallow flies
Homeward back from southern skies,
To the dear old cottage thatch
Where it loves to build and hatch,
That its young may understand,
Nor forget, this English land;
When the cuckoo, mocking rover,
Laughs that April loves are over;
When the hawthorn, all ablow,
Mimics the defeated snow;
Then you give one last look round,
Stir the sleepers underground,
Call the campion to awake,
Tell the speedwell courage take,
Bid the eyebright have no fear,
Whisper in the bluebell's ear
Time has come for it to flood
With its blue waves all the wood,
Mind the stichwort of its pledge
To replace you in the hedge,
Bid the ladysmocks good-bye,
Close your bonnie lids and die;
And, without one look of blame,
Go as gently as you came.
Scheme | ABCDDEEFFGGGDXHEIIJJKKLLEXMM ANNOOXXPPQQRRXESSXXLBIITDUUVVWWTDXXYY AZZVVYY1 1 ZZEE2 2 3 3 4 4 5 5 LLGV6 6 7 7 BCXH8 8 AA9 9 |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1 10100101 101101 1010101 101111 10101001 110111 01100110 11101010 111001 0110111 1110111 1111101 11101010 1010101 10111 1010111 1110011 1111101 100010 1001101 11101001 1110110 11101010 111111 11101010 101111 101010 1 1111101 101111 1010101 1011111 1110110 1010100 1010101 1010101 1011101 1011101 101011 111111 101111 10101 11100111 11111001 1011101 11100 1010110 101111 101111 111010 1111101 10111 1111101 1010001 1010111 111101 0110111 1011111 1010111 1011 1110101 110101 1011111 1010111 1 1111111 00110111 111011 101111 101111 1010111 1110101 1110101 101001010 1010010 1110111 1011101 0110101 1110111 101101 1011101 1011101 1111101 111101 1011101 1011010 11101110 10111 1000101 1111111 101010 10100101 101101 101111 100011 1111111 1111101 101111 111001 10111 1110101 0011111 1110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 3,081 |
Words | 543 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 28, 37, 39 |
Lines Amount | 104 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 839 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 180 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:44 min read
- 124 Views
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"Primroses" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/781/primroses>.
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