Analysis of Sweet Springtime

George Eliot 1819 (Nuneaton, Warwickshire) – 1880 (Chelsea, London)



It was in the prime
Of the sweet springtime
In the linnet's throat
Trembled the love note,
And the love-stirred air
Thrilled the blossoms there.
Little shadows danced,
Each a tiny elf
Happy in large light
And the thinnest self.

It was but a minute
In a far-off spring,
But each gentle thing,
Sweetly wooing linnet,
Soft thrilled hawthorn tree,
Happy shadowy elf,
With the thinnest self,
Live on still in me.
It was in the prime
Of the past springtime!


Scheme Aabbccxdxd xeexfddfAa
Poetic Form Tetractys  (40%)
Etheree  (25%)
Metre 11001 1011 0011 10011 00111 10101 1011 10101 10011 00101 111010 00111 11101 101010 1111 101001 10101 11101 11001 1011
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 441
Words 83
Sentences 5
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 10, 10
Lines Amount 20
Letters per line (avg) 18
Words per line (avg) 4
Letters per stanza (avg) 178
Words per stanza (avg) 41
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 01, 2023

25 sec read
493

George Eliot

Mary Anne Evans, better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, journalist and translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. more…

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