The Maiden's Sorrow
Seven long years has the desert rainDropped on the clods that hide thy face;Seven long years of sorrow and painI have thought of thy burial-place.
Thought of thy fate in the distant west,Dying with none that loved thee near;They who flung the earth on thy breastTurned from the spot williout a tear.
There, I think, on that lonely grave,Violets spring in the soft May shower;There, in the summer breezes, waveCrimson phlox and moccasin flower.
There the turtles alight, and thereFeeds with her fawn the timid doe;There, when the winter woods are bare,Walks the wolf on the crackling snow.
Soon wilt thou wipe my tears away;All my task upon earth is done;My poor father, old and gray,Slumbers beneath the churchyard stone.
In the dreams of my lonely bed,Ever thy form before me seems;All night long I talk with the dead,All day long I think of my dreams.
This deep wound that bleeds and aches,This long pain, a sleepless pain--When the Father my spirit takes,I shall feel it no more again.
Words in this poem
- phlox n.
- A genus of American herbs, having showy red, white, or purple flowers. Phlox worm (Zoöl.), the larva of an American moth (Heliothis phloxiphaga). It is destructive to phloxes.
- moccasin n.
- A shoe made of deerskin, or other soft leather, the sole and upper part being one piece. It is the customary shoe worn by the American Indians. [An Indian word. Algonquin makisin.]
- churchyard n.
- The ground adjoining a church, in which the dead are buried; a cemetery.
- sleepless a.
- Having no sleep; wakeful.
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Maiden's Sorrow 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 Maiden's Sorrow, in Poems (1821–1876), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16341, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bryant-poems/the-maiden-s-sorrow.html, id L07363.
Form and metre
The Maiden's Sorrow is 28 lines in 7 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 6 of its 7 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 77%). 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.2 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 18% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic 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 ABAB rainA · faceB · painA · placeB
- 2 ABAB westA · nearB · breastA · tearB
- 3 ABAB graveA · showerB · waveA · flowerB
- 4 ABAB thereA · doeB · bareA · snowB
- 5 A-A- awayA · done · grayA · stone
- 6 ABAB bedA · seemsB · deadA · dreamsB
- 7 ABAB achesA · painB · takesA · againB
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Seven long years has the desert rain | 8 | /····˘/· |
| Dropped on the clods that hide thy face; | 8 | ········ |
| Seven long years of sorrow and pain | 8 | /···/˘·· |
| I have thought of thy burial-place. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Thought of thy fate in the distant west, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Dying with none that loved thee near; | 8 | /˘······ |
| They who flung the earth on thy breast | 8 | ········ |
| Turned from the spot williout a tear. | 8 | ········ |
| There, I think, on that lonely grave, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Violets spring in the soft May shower; | 8 | /˘·····/ |
| There, in the summer breezes, wave | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Crimson phlox and moccasin flower. | 9 | /˘··/˘˘/˘ |
| There the turtles alight, and there | 8 | ··/˘˘/·· |
| Feeds with her fawn the timid doe; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| There, when the winter woods are bare, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Walks the wolf on the crackling snow. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Soon wilt thou wipe my tears away; | 8 | ······˘/ |
| All my task upon earth is done; | 8 | ········ |
| My poor father, old and gray, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Slumbers beneath the churchyard stone. | 8 | /˘···/·· |
| In the dreams of my lonely bed, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Ever thy form before me seems; | 8 | /˘······ |
| All night long I talk with the dead, | 8 | ········ |
| All day long I think of my dreams. | 8 | ········ |
| This deep wound that bleeds and aches, | 7 | ······· |
| This long pain, a sleepless pain-- | 7 | ····/˘· |
| When the Father my spirit takes, | 8 | ··/˘·/˘· |
| I shall feel it no more again. | 8 | ······˘/ |
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