The Treasure
When colour goes home into the eyes,And lights that shine are shut againWith dancing girls and sweet birds' criesBehind the gateways of the brain;And that no-place which gave them birth, shall closeThe rainbow and the rose:--
Still may Time hold some golden spaceWhere I'll unpack that scented storeOf song and flower and sky and face,And count, and touch, and turn them o'er,Musing upon them; as a mother, whoHas watched her children all the rich day throughSits, quiet-handed, in the fading light,When children sleep, ere night.
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- unpack v. t.
- To separate and remove, as things packed; to open and remove the contents of; as, to unpack a trunk. [1st pref. un- + pack.]
- fading n.
- An Irish dance; also, the burden of a song.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Treasure is in the public domain. This text is taken from 1914, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #33902; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Rupert Brooke, The Treasure, in 1914 and Other Poems (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #33902, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/brooke-1914/the-treasure.html, id L04731.
Form and metre
The Treasure is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.3 syllables. 50% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See 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 ABABCC eyesA · againB · criesA · brainB · closeC · roseC
- 2 A-A-BBCC spaceA · store · faceA · o'er · whoB · throughB · lightC · nightC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| When colour goes home into the eyes, | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| And lights that shine are shut again | 8 | ······˘/ |
| With dancing girls and sweet birds' cries | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Behind the gateways of the brain; | 8 | ···/···· |
| And that no-place which gave them birth, shall close | 10 | ·········· |
| The rainbow and the rose:-- | 6 | ·/···· |
| Still may Time hold some golden space | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Where I'll unpack that scented store | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| Of song and flower and sky and face, | 8 | ···/···· |
| And count, and touch, and turn them o'er, | 8 | ········ |
| Musing upon them; as a mother, who | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| Has watched her children all the rich day through | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Sits, quiet-handed, in the fading light, | 9 | ·//˘··/˘· |
| When children sleep, ere night. | 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.