"Oh Fairest of the Rural Maids"
Oh fairest of the rural maids!Thy birth was in the forest shades;Green boughs, and glimpses of the sky,Were all that met thy infant eye.
Thy sports, thy wanderings, when a child,Were ever in the sylvan wild;And all the beauty of the placeIs in thy heart and on thy face.
The twilight of the trees and rocksIs in the light shade of thy locks;Thy step is as the wind, that weavesIts playful way among the leaves.
Thine eyes are springs, in whose sereneAnd silent waters heaven is seen;Their lashes are the herbs that lookOn their young figures in the brook.
The forest depths, by foot unpressed,Are not more sinless than thy breast;The holy peace, that fills the airOf those calm solitudes, is there.
Words in this poem
- sinless a.
- Free from sin. Piers Plowman.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
"Oh Fairest of the Rural Maids" is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems by William Cullen Bryant, Project Gutenberg ebook #16341; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Cullen Bryant, "Oh Fairest of the Rural Maids", in Poems (1821–1876), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16341, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bryant-poems/oh-fairest-of-the-rural-maids.html, id L07285.
Form and metre
"Oh Fairest of the Rural Maids" is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.2 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 30% 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 AABB maidsA · shadesA · skyB · eyeB
- 2 AABB childA · wildA · placeB · faceB
- 3 AABB rocksA · locksA · weavesB · leavesB
- 4 AABB sereneA · seenA · lookB · brookB
- 5 AABB unpressedA · breastA · airB · thereB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Oh fairest of the rural maids! | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Thy birth was in the forest shades; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Green boughs, and glimpses of the sky, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Were all that met thy infant eye. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Thy sports, thy wanderings, when a child, | 9 | ···/˘˘··· |
| Were ever in the sylvan wild; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And all the beauty of the place | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Is in thy heart and on thy face. | 8 | ········ |
| The twilight of the trees and rocks | 8 | ·/······ |
| Is in the light shade of thy locks; | 8 | ········ |
| Thy step is as the wind, that weaves | 8 | ········ |
| Its playful way among the leaves. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Thine eyes are springs, in whose serene | 8 | ······˘/ |
| And silent waters heaven is seen; | 9 | ·/˘/˘/˘·· |
| Their lashes are the herbs that look | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| On their young figures in the brook. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The forest depths, by foot unpressed, | 9 | ·/˘·····˘ |
| Are not more sinless than thy breast; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The holy peace, that fills the air | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Of those calm solitudes, is there. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
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.