Summum Bonum
All the breath and the bloom of the year in the bag of one bee;All the wonder and wealth of the mine in the heart of one gem;In the core of one pearl all the shade and the shine of the sea;Breath and bloom, shade and shine--wonder, wealth, and--how farabove them--Truth, that's brighter than gem,Trust, that's purer than pearl--Brightest truth, purest trust in the universe--all were for meIn the kiss of one girl.
Words in this poem
- wealth n.
- Weal; welfare; prosperity; good. [OE. welthe, from wele; cf. D. weelde luxury. See Weal prosperity.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Summum Bonum 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, Summum Bonum, in Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning (1864), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #28041, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/browning-selections/summum-bonum.html, id L25134.
Form and metre
Summum Bonum is 9 lines in a single stanza.
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 ABA-BBCAC beeA · gemB · seaA · far · themB · gemB · pearlC · meA · girlC
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| All the breath and the bloom of the year in the bag of one bee; | 15 | ··············· |
| All the wonder and wealth of the mine in the heart of one gem; | 15 | ··/˘··········· |
| In the core of one pearl all the shade and the shine of the sea; | 15 | ··············· |
| Breath and bloom, shade and shine--wonder, wealth, and--how far | 12 | ······/˘···· |
| above them-- | 3 | ··· |
| Truth, that's brighter than gem, | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| Trust, that's purer than pearl-- | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| Brightest truth, purest trust in the universe--all were for me | 15 | /˘·/˘···/˘····· |
| In the kiss of one girl. | 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.