My Pretty Rose Tree
A flower was offered to me,Such a flower as May never bore;But I said "I've a pretty rose tree,"And I passed the sweet flower o'er.
Then I went to my pretty rose tree,To tend her by day and by night;But my rose turned away with jealousy,And her thorns were my only delight.
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
My Pretty Rose Tree is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems of William Blake, Project Gutenberg ebook #574; 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 Blake, My Pretty Rose Tree, in Poems of William Blake (1783–1794), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #574, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/blake-poems/my-pretty-rose-tree.html, id L02012.
Form and metre
My Pretty Rose Tree is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is anapaestic common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 86% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in anapaestic common measure.
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 A-A- meA · bore · treeA · o'er
- 2 -A-A tree · nightA · jealousy · delightA
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 anapaestic common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| A flower was offered to me, | 9 | ·/˘·/˘˘·· |
| Such a flower as May never bore; | 9 | ··/˘··/˘· |
| But I said "I've a pretty rose tree," | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| And I passed the sweet flower o'er. | 9 | ···˘··/˘· |
| Then I went to my pretty rose tree, | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| To tend her by day and by night; | 8 | ········ |
| But my rose turned away with jealousy, | 10 | ····˘/·/˘˘ |
| And her thorns were my only delight. | 9 | ·····/˘˘/ |
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.