Early Risen
The air to gi'e your cheaeks a hueO' rwosy red, so feair to view,Is what do sheaeke the grass-bleaedes grayAt breaek o' day, in mornen dew;Vor vo'k that will be rathe abrode,Will meet wi' health upon their road.
But biden up till dead o' night,When han's o' clocks do stan' upright,By candle-light, do soon consumeThe feaece's bloom, an' turn it white.An' light a-cast vrom midnight skiesDo blunt the sparklen ov the eyes.
Vor health do weaeke vrom nightly dreamsBelow the mornen's eaerly beams,An' leaeve the dead-air'd houses' eaves,Vor quiv'ren leaves, an' bubblen streams,A-glitt'ren brightly to the view,Below a sky o' cloudless blue.
Words in this poem
- rathe a.
- Coming before others, or before the usual time; early. [AS. hræ\'eb, hræd, quick, akin to OHG. hrad, Icel. hrathr.]
- nightly a.
- Of or pertaining to the night, or to every night; happening or done by night, or every night; as, nightly shades; he kept nightly vigils.
- cloudless a.
- Without a cloud; clear; bright.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Early Risen is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect, Project Gutenberg ebook #21785; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Barnes, Early Risen, in Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect (1844–1862), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #21785, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/barnes-dorset/early-risen.html, id L02242.
Form and metre
Early Risen is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 67% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 28% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AA-ABB hueA · viewA · gray · dewA · abrodeB · roadB
- 2 AA-ABB nightA · uprightA · consume · whiteA · skiesB · eyesB
- 3 AA-ABB dreamsA · beamsA · eaves · streamsA · viewB · blueB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The air to gi'e your cheaeks a hue | 8 | ········ |
| O' rwosy red, so feair to view, | 8 | ········ |
| Is what do sheaeke the grass-bleaedes gray | 8 | ········ |
| At breaek o' day, in mornen dew; | 8 | ········ |
| Vor vo'k that will be rathe abrode, | 8 | ········ |
| Will meet wi' health upon their road. | 8 | ········ |
| But biden up till dead o' night, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| When han's o' clocks do stan' upright, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| By candle-light, do soon consume | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| The feaece's bloom, an' turn it white. | 8 | ········ |
| An' light a-cast vrom midnight skies | 8 | ·····/·· |
| Do blunt the sparklen ov the eyes. | 8 | ········ |
| Vor health do weaeke vrom nightly dreams | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Below the mornen's eaerly beams, | 8 | ········ |
| An' leaeve the dead-air'd houses' eaves, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Vor quiv'ren leaves, an' bubblen streams, | 8 | ········ |
| A-glitt'ren brightly to the view, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Below a sky o' cloudless blue. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.