What's in a Name? by Christina Georgina Rossetti
A speaker compares the sounds of the seasons' names, moving from spring's abundance and summer's fleeting pleasures to autumn's decline and winter's cold. Hope for returning sunshine leads to thoughts of growing old while younger people sing songs and ring bells as the speaker's generation once did.
By Christina Georgina Rossetti · Genre: Lyric Poetry, Nature Poetry, Reflective Poetry · 343 words
First lines
Why has Spring one syllable less / Than any its fellow season? / There may be some other reason, / And I'm merely making a guess; / But surely it hoards such wealth / Of happiness, hope and health, / Sunshine and musical sound, / It may spare a foot from its name / Yet all the same / Superabound.
Soft-named Summer, / Most welcome comer, / Brings almost everything / Over which we dream or sing / Or sigh; / But then Summer wends its way, / To-morrow, -- to-day, -- / Good-bye!
Genres
- Lyric Poetry — Four rhymed stanzas combine a speaker's guesses about seasonal names with shared feelings of pleasure, cold and remembered youth.
- Nature Poetry — The sequence follows spring sunshine, summer's departure, autumn's dwindling birdsong and winter snow.
- Reflective Poetry — The expectation that winter will end turns into reflection on old age and younger people repeating the songs of earlier generations.
Tags
seasons · wordplay · sunshine · winter cold · aging · remembered youth
What this Textopian page supports
What's in a Name? is listed on Textopian as a poem by Christina Georgina Rossetti, dated Date unknown.
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- Work type: Poem
- Author: Christina Georgina Rossetti
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Lyric Poetry, Nature Poetry, Reflective Poetry
- Length: 343 words
- Structure: 1 section, 4 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
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