The Gladness of Nature

William Cullen Bryant (1794–1878) · 1821–1876

iambic pentameter · ABAB · 20 lines · from Poems

Is this a time to be cloudy and sad,When our mother Nature laughs around;When even the deep blue heavens look glad,And gladness breathes from the blossoming ground?

There are notes of joy from the hang-bird and wren,And the gossip of swallows through all the sky;The ground-squirrel gayly chirps by his den,And the wilding bee hums merrily by.

The clouds are at play in the azure space,And their shadows at play on the bright green vale,And here they stretch to the frolic chase,And there they roll on the easy gale.

There's a dance of leaves in that aspen bower,There's a titter of winds in that beechen tree,There's a smile on the fruit, and a smile on the flower,And a laugh from the brook that runs to the sea.

And look at the broad-faced sun, how he smilesOn the dewy earth that smiles in his ray,On the leaping waters and gay young isles;Ay, look, and he'll smile thy gloom away.

Words in this poem

gayly adv.: With mirth and frolic; merrily; blithely; gleefully.
wilding a.: Not tame, domesticated, or cultivated; wild.
vale n.: A tract of low ground, or of land between hills; a valley. [OE. val, F. val, L. vallis; perhaps akin to Gr. Avalanche, Vail to lower, Valley.]
beechen a.: Consisting, or made, of the wood or bark of the beech; belonging to the beech. [AS. b.]

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

The Gladness of Nature 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, The Gladness of Nature, in Poems (1821–1876), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16341, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bryant-poems/the-gladness-of-nature.html, id L07301.

Form and metre

The Gladness of Nature is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 75%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 5% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.

See other poems in iambic pentameter.

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 sad^A · around^B · glad^A · ground^B
2 ABAB wren^A · sky^B · den^A · by^B
3 ABAB space^A · vale^B · chase^A · gale^B
4 ABAB bower^A · tree^B · flower^A · sea^B
5 ABAB smiles^A · ray^B · isles^A · away^B

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 pentameter. How this is done.

Line	Syl.	Stress
Is this a time to be cloudy and sad,	10	······/˘··
When our mother Nature laughs around;	10	·/˘/˘/˘···
When even the deep blue heavens look glad,	10	·/˘···/˘··
And gladness breathes from the blossoming ground?	10	·/˘···/˘˘·
There are notes of joy from the hang-bird and wren,	11	···········
And the gossip of swallows through all the sky;	11	··/˘·/˘····
The ground-squirrel gayly chirps by his den,	10	··/˘/˘····
And the wilding bee hums merrily by.	10	··/˘··/˘˘·
The clouds are at play in the azure space,	10	·······/˘·
And their shadows at play on the bright green vale,	11	··/········
And here they stretch to the frolic chase,	9	······/˘·
And there they roll on the easy gale.	9	······/˘·
There's a dance of leaves in that aspen bower,	11	·······/˘/˘
There's a titter of winds in that beechen tree,	11	··/˘····/˘·
There's a smile on the fruit, and a smile on the flower,	12	···········/
And a laugh from the brook that runs to the sea.	11	···········
And look at the broad-faced sun, how he smiles	10	··········
On the dewy earth that smiles in his ray,	10	··/˘······
On the leaping waters and gay young isles;	10	··/˘/˘····
Ay, look, and he'll smile thy gloom away.	9	·······˘/

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.

More by William Cullen Bryant

Poems