Jane
No meadow-flow'r rose fresher to the view,That met her morning footsteps in the dew;Where, if a nodding stranger ey'd her charms,The blush of innocence was up in arms,Love's random glances struck the unguarded mind,And Beauty's magic made him look behind.Duly as morning blush'd or twilight came,Secure of greeting smiles and Village fame,She pass'd the Straw-roof'd Shed, in ranges whereHung many a well-turn'd Shoe and glitt'ring Share;Where WALTER, as the charmer tripp'd along,Would stop his roaring Bellows and his Song.--Dawn of affection; Love's delicious sigh!Caught from the lightnings of a speaking eye,That leads the heart to rapture or to woe,'Twas WALTER'S fate thy mad'ning power to know;And scarce to know, ere in its infant twine,As the Blast shakes the tendrils of the Vine,
Words in this poem
- walter v. i.
- To roll or wallow; to welter. [Obs. or Prov. Eng. & Scot.] [See Welter.]
- charmer n.
- One who charms, or has power to charm; one who uses the power of enchantment; a magician. Deut. xviii. 11.
- scarce a.
- Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Jane is in the public domain. This text is taken from Rural Tales, Ballads, and Songs, Project Gutenberg ebook #9093; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Robert Bloomfield, Jane, in Rural Tales, Ballads and Songs (1802), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9093, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bloomfield-tales/jane.html, id L09671.
Form and metre
Jane is 18 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 6% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in heroic couplets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHII viewA · dewA · charmsB · armsB · mindC · behindC · cameD · fameD · whereE · shareE · alongF · songF · sighG · eyeG · woeH · knowH · twineI · vineI
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| No meadow-flow'r rose fresher to the view, | 10 | ·/···/˘··· |
| That met her morning footsteps in the dew; | 10 | ···/˘/···· |
| Where, if a nodding stranger ey'd her charms, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| The blush of innocence was up in arms, | 10 | ···/˘˘···· |
| Love's random glances struck the unguarded mind, | 11 | ·/˘/˘··˘/˘· |
| And Beauty's magic made him look behind. | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Duly as morning blush'd or twilight came, | 10 | /˘·/˘··/·· |
| Secure of greeting smiles and Village fame, | 10 | ˘/·/˘··/˘· |
| She pass'd the Straw-roof'd Shed, in ranges where | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Hung many a well-turn'd Shoe and glitt'ring Share; | 10 | ·/········ |
| Where WALTER, as the charmer tripp'd along, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| Would stop his roaring Bellows and his Song.-- | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Dawn of affection; Love's delicious sigh! | 10 | ··˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| Caught from the lightnings of a speaking eye, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| That leads the heart to rapture or to woe, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| 'Twas WALTER'S fate thy mad'ning power to know; | 10 | ·/˘····/·· |
| And scarce to know, ere in its infant twine, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| As the Blast shakes the tendrils of the Vine, | 10 | ·········· |
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.