Analysis of Flood-Tide of Flowers
Henry Van Dyke 1852 (Germantown, Pennsylvania) – 1933 (Princeton, New Jersey)
The laggard winter ebbed so slow
With freezing rain and melting snow,
It seemed as if the earth would stay
Forever where the tide was low,
In sodden green and watery gray.
But now from depths beyond our sight,
The tide is turning in the night,
And floods of color long concealed
Come silent rising toward the light,
Through garden bare and empty field.
And first, along the sheltered nooks,
The crocus runs in little brooks
Of joyance, till by light made bold
They show the gladness of their looks
In shining pools of white and gold.
The tiny scilla, sapphire blue,
Is gently seeping in, to strew
The earth with heaven; and sudden rills
Of sunlit yellow, sweeping through,
Spread into lakes of daffodils.
The hyacinths, with fragrant heads,
Have overflowed their sandy beds,
And fill the earth with faint perfume,
The breath that Spring around her sheds.
And now the tulips break in bloom!
A sea, a rainbow-tinted sea,
A splendor and a mystery,
Floods o'er the fields of faded gray:
The roads are full of folks in glee,
For lo, -- to-day is Easter Day!
Scheme | AABAB CCDCD EEFEF GGEGX HHIHI JJBJB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (33%) Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 010101011 11010101 11110111 01010111 010101001 111101101 01110001 01110101 110100101 11010101 01010101 01010101 1111111 1101111 01011101 010101001 11010011 011100101 1110101 1011110 01001101 1011101 01011101 01110101 01010101 0101101 01000100 110011101 01111101 11111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,047 |
Words | 192 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 |
Lines Amount | 30 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 138 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 31 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 57 sec read
- 112 Views
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"Flood-Tide of Flowers" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/18321/flood-tide-of-flowers>.
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