Analysis of April
Algernon Charles Swinburne 1837 (London) – 1909 (London)
WHEN the fields catch flower
And the underwood is green,
And from bower unto bower
The songs of the birds begin,
I sing with sighing between.
When I laugh and sing,
I am heavy at heart for my sin;
I am sad in the spring
For my love that I shall not win,
For a foolish thing.
This profit I have of my woe,
That I know, as I sing,
I know he will needs have it so
Who is master and king,
Who is lord of the spirit of spring.
I will serve her and will not spare
Till her pity awake
Who is good, who is pure, who is fair,
Even her for whose sake
Love hath ta’en me and slain unaware.
O my lord, O Love,
I have laid my life at thy feet;
Have thy will thereof,
Do as it please thee with it,
For what shall please thee is sweet.
I am come unto thee
To do thee service, O Love;
Yet cannot I see
Thou wilt take any pity thereof,
Any mercy on me.
But the grace I have long time sought
Comes never in sight,
If in her it abideth not,
Through thy mercy and might,
Whose heart is the world’s delight.
Thou hast sworn without fail I shall die,
For my heart is set
On what hurts me, I wot not why,
But cannot forget
What I love, what I sing for and sigh.
She is worthy of praise,
For this grief of her giving is worth
All the joy of my days
That lie between death’s day and birth,
All the lordship of things upon earth.
Nay, what have I said?
I would not be glad if I could;
My dream and my dread
Are of her, and for her sake I would
That my life were fled.
Lo, sweet, if I durst not pray to you,
Then were I dead;
If I sang not a little to say to you,
(Could it be said)
O my love, how my heart would be fed;
Ah sweet who hast hold of my heart,
For thy love’s sake I live,
Do but tell me, ere either depart,
What a lover may give
For a woman so fair as thou art.
The lovers that disbelieve,
False rumours shall grieve
And evil-speaking shall part.
Scheme | ABACBDCDCD EDEDDFGFGF HIHXIJHJHJ XKXKKLMLML NONOOPQPQP RPRPPSXSXS TTS |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 101110 001011 01101010 0110101 1111001 11101 111011111 111001 11111111 10101 11011111 111111 11111111 111001 111101011 11100111 101001 111111111 100111 11110101 11111 11111111 1111 1111111 1111111 111101 1111011 11011 11110101 101011 10111111 11001 100111 111001 1110101 111011111 11111 11111111 11001 111111101 111011 111101011 101111 11011101 10111011 11111 11111111 11011 110010111 11101 111111111 1011 11110101111 1111 111111111 11111111 111111 111111001 101011 101011111 0101001 1011 0101011 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,786 |
Words | 391 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 3 |
Lines Amount | 63 |
Letters per line (avg) | 22 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 197 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 56 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:57 min read
- 68 Views
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"April" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/1271/april>.
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