The Day After It Had Been Given by Miss Ponsonby
Soft blushing flow'r! my bosom grieves,To view thy sadly drooping leaves:For, while their tender tints decay,The rose of Fancy fades away!As pilgrims, who, with zealous care,Some little treasur'd relic bear,To re-assure the doubtful mind,When pausing memory looks behind;I, from a more enlighten'd shrine,Had made this sweet memento mine:But, lo! its fainting head reclines;It folds the pallid leaf, and pines,As mourning the unhappy doom,Which tears it from so sweet a home!
Words in this poem
- sadly adv.
- Wearily; heavily; firmly.
- memento n.
- A hint, suggestion, token, or memorial, to awaken memory; that which reminds or recalls to memory; a souvenir. [L., remember, be mindful, imper. of meminisse to remember. See Mention.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Day After It Had Been Given by Miss Ponsonby is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #9998; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Matilda Betham, The Day After It Had Been Given by Miss Ponsonby, in Poems (1808), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9998, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/betham-poems/the-day-after-it-had-been-given-by-miss-ponsonby.html, id L23511.
Form and metre
The Day After It Had Been Given by Miss Ponsonby is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 86% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%).
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 AABBCCDDEEFF-- grievesA · leavesA · decayB · awayB · careC · bearC · mindD · behindD · shrineE · mineE · reclinesF · pinesF · doom · home
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Soft blushing flow'r! my bosom grieves, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| To view thy sadly drooping leaves: | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| For, while their tender tints decay, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| The rose of Fancy fades away! | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| As pilgrims, who, with zealous care, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Some little treasur'd relic bear, | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| To re-assure the doubtful mind, | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| When pausing memory looks behind; | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| I, from a more enlighten'd shrine, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Had made this sweet memento mine: | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| But, lo! its fainting head reclines; | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| It folds the pallid leaf, and pines, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| As mourning the unhappy doom, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| Which tears it from so sweet a home! | 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.