Analysis of The Spring And The Fall

Edna St. Vincent Millay 1892 (Rockland) – 1950 (Austerlitz)



In the spring of the year, in the spring of the year,
I walked the road beside my dear.
The trees were black where the bark was wet.
I see them yet, in the spring of the year.
He broke me a bough of the blossoming peach
That was out of the way and hard to reach.

In the fall of the year, in the fall of the year,
I walked the road beside my dear.
The rooks went up with a raucous trill.
I hear them still, in the fall of the year.
He laughed at all I dared to praise,
And broke my heart, in little ways.

Year be springing or year be falling,
The bark will drip and the birds be calling.
There's much that's fine to see and hear
In the spring of a year, in the fall of a year.
'Tis not love's going hurt my days.
But that it went in little ways.


Scheme aAxabb aAxacc ddxacc
Poetic Form
Metre 001101001101 11010111 010110111 1111001101 11101101001 1111010111 001101001101 11010111 011110101 1111001101 11111111 01110101 111011110 0111001110 11111101 001101001101 11110111 11110101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 752
Words 161
Sentences 13
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 6
Lines Amount 18
Letters per line (avg) 31
Words per line (avg) 9
Letters per stanza (avg) 187
Words per stanza (avg) 53
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 03, 2023

49 sec read
412

Edna St. Vincent Millay

Edna St. Vincent Millay was an American poet and playwright. She received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1923, the third woman to win the award for poetry, and was also known for her feminist activism more…

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