"Heap Cassia, Sandal-Buds, and Stripes"
Heap cassia, sandal-buds, and stripesOf labdanum, and aloe-balls,Smeared with dull nard an Indian wipesFrom out her hair; such balsam fallsDown sea-side mountain pedestals,From tree-tops where tired winds are fain,Spent with the vast and howling main,To treasure half their island-gain.
And strew faint sweetness from some oldEgyptian's fine worm-eaten shroudWhich breaks to dust when once unrolled;Or shredded perfume, like a cloudFrom closet long to quiet vowed,With mothed and dropping arras hung,Moldering her lute and books among,As when a queen, long dead, was young.
Words in this poem
- cassia n.
- A genus of leguminous plants (herbs, shrubs, or trees) of many species, most of which have purgative qualities. The leaves of several species furnish the senna used in medicine. [L. cassia and casia, Gr. qetsi\'beh, fr. qatsa' to cut off, to peel off.]
- nard n.
- An East Indian plant (Nardostachys Jatamansi) of the Valerian family, used from remote ages in Oriental perfumery. [AS., fr. L. nardus, Gr. nêrd, Per. nard, Scr. nalada.]
- fain v. t.
- To be glad ; to wish or desire.
- arras n.
- Tapestry; a rich figured fabric; especially, a screen or hangings of heavy cloth with interwoven figures. [From Arras the capital of Artois, in the French Netherlands.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
"Heap Cassia, Sandal-Buds, and Stripes" is in the public domain. This text is taken from Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning, Project Gutenberg ebook #28041; 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 Browning, "Heap Cassia, Sandal-Buds, and Stripes", in Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning (1864), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #28041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/browning-selections/heap-cassia-sandal-buds-and-stripes.html, id L25074.
Form and metre
"Heap Cassia, Sandal-Buds, and Stripes" is 16 lines in 2 stanzas of 8 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABABBCCC. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%).
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 ABABBCCC stripesA · ballsB · wipesA · fallsB · pedestalsB · fainC · mainC · gainC
- 2 ABABBCCC oldA · shroudB · unrolledA · cloudB · vowedB · hungC · amongC · youngC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Heap cassia, sandal-buds, and stripes | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Of labdanum, and aloe-balls, | 8 | ·/˘˘·/·· |
| Smeared with dull nard an Indian wipes | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| From out her hair; such balsam falls | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Down sea-side mountain pedestals, | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| From tree-tops where tired winds are fain, | 8 | ····/··· |
| Spent with the vast and howling main, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| To treasure half their island-gain. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And strew faint sweetness from some old | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Egyptian's fine worm-eaten shroud | 8 | ˘/˘··/˘· |
| Which breaks to dust when once unrolled; | 8 | ········ |
| Or shredded perfume, like a cloud | 8 | ·/˘˘/··· |
| From closet long to quiet vowed, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| With mothed and dropping arras hung, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Moldering her lute and books among, | 8 | /˘······ |
| As when a queen, long dead, was young. | 8 | ········ |
On this poem
Notes from the edition 2
Notes by Myra Reynolds, Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning (Project Gutenberg #28041).
- Stanza 1, line 1 Cassia is an unidentified fragrant plant; the wood of the sandal tree is also fragrant; labdanum or ladanum, is a resinous gum of dark color and pungent odor, exuding from various species of the cistus, a plant found around the Mediterranean; aloe-balls are made from a bitter resinous juice extracted from the leaves of aloe-plants; nard is an ointment made from an aromatic plant and used in the East Indies. These substances have long been traditionally associated in literature. In Psalms xlv, 8 we read: "All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad." Milton in Paradise Lost, v, 293, speaks of "flowering odors, cassia, nard, and balms."
- Stanza 1, line 4 Such balsam. The meaning of II. 4-8 is obscure. "Sea-side mountain pedestals" are presumably cliffs. In the tops of the trees on these cliffs the wind, weary of its rough work on the ocean, has gently dropped the fragrant things it has swept up from the island.
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