Lyric Poem · Spring
A little Madness in the Spring
A little Madness in the Spring
Is wholesome even for the King,
But God be with the Clown —
Who ponders this tremendous scene —
This whole Experiment of Green —
As if it were his own!
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“A little Madness in the Spring” by Emily Dickinson — quilloak.com/poems/a-little-madness-in-the-spring
Quick facts
- Poem
- A little Madness in the Spring
- Poet
- Emily Dickinson
- Length
- 6 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem, Short Poems
- Themes
- Spring, Nature, Peace, Short
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 6 lines · one 6-line stanza
- Line length
- Lines run 6-9 syllables (median 8), consistent with tetrameter. No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
Want the rules this form is measured against? Read what makes a lyric poem, or run your own draft through the form checker to see the same measurements on your lines. How we measure · Report a mistake
Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- Emily Dickinson1830–1886
- Source record
- PoetryDBA little Madness in the Spring by emily-dickinson, PoetryDB transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- Not recorded in the imported source
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 9c94c7f62eb54f78…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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