An Anniversary
Bright, my belovèd, be thy day,This eve of Summer's fall:And Autumn mass his flowers gayTo crown thy festival!
I care not if the morn be bright,Living in thy love-rays:No flower I need for my delight,Being crownèd with thy praise.
O many years and joyfullyThis sun to thee return;Ever all men speak well of thee,Nor any angel mourn!
For length of life I would not pray,If thy life were to seek;Nor ask what men and angels sayBut when of thee they speak.
Arise! The sky hath heard my song,The flowers o'erhear thy praise;And little loves are waking longTo wish thee happy days.
Words in this poem
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
An Anniversary is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of Robert Bridges, Excluding the Eight Dramas, Project Gutenberg ebook #37804; 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 Bridges, An Anniversary, in The Growth of Love, and Other Poems (1873–1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #37804, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bridges-shorter-poems/an-anniversary.html, id L26309.
Form and metre
An Anniversary is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 4 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
See other poems in 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 ABAB dayA · fallB · gayA · festivalB
- 2 ABAB brightA · raysB · delightA · praiseB
- 4 ABAB prayA · seekB · sayA · speakB
- 5 ABAB songA · praiseB · longA · daysB
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Bright, my belovèd, be thy day, | 7 | ······· |
| This eve of Summer's fall: | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And Autumn mass his flowers gay | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| To crown thy festival! | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| I care not if the morn be bright, | 8 | ········ |
| Living in thy love-rays: | 6 | /˘···· |
| No flower I need for my delight, | 9 | ·/˘····˘/ |
| Being crownèd with thy praise. | 6 | /˘···· |
| O many years and joyfully | 8 | ·/˘··/˘˘ |
| This sun to thee return; | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Ever all men speak well of thee, | 8 | /˘······ |
| Nor any angel mourn! | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| For length of life I would not pray, | 8 | ········ |
| If thy life were to seek; | 6 | ······ |
| Nor ask what men and angels say | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| But when of thee they speak. | 6 | ······ |
| Arise! The sky hath heard my song, | 8 | ˘/······ |
| The flowers o'erhear thy praise; | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| And little loves are waking long | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| To wish thee happy days. | 6 | ···/˘· |
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.