The Fading Flower
There is a chillness in the air--A coldness in the smile of day;And e'en the sunbeam's crimson glareSeems shaded with a tinge of gray.
Weary of journeys to and fro,The sun low creeps adown the sky;And on the shivering earth below,The long, cold shadows grimly lie.
But there will fall a deeper shade,More chilling than the Autumn's breath:There is a flower that yet must fade,And yield its sweetness up to death.
She sits upon the window-seat,Musing in mournful silence there,While on her brow the sunbeams meet,And dally with her golden hair.
She gazes on the sea of lightThat overflows the western skies,Till her great soul seems plumed for flightFrom out the window of her eyes.
Hopes unfulfilled have vexed her breast,Sad smiles have checked the rising sigh;Until her weary heart confessed,Reluctantly, that she must die.
And she has thought of all the ties--The golden ties--that bind her here;Of all that she has learned to prize,Of all that she has counted dear;
The joys of body, heart, and mind,The pleasures that she loves so well;The grasp of friendship, warm and kind,And love's delicious, hallowed spell.
And she has wept, that she must lieBeneath the snow-wreaths, drifted deep,With no fond mother standing nigh,To watch her in her silent sleep.
And she has prayed, if it might beWithin the reach of human skill,And not averse to Heaven, that sheMight live a little longer still.
But earthly hope is gone; and nowComes in its place a brighter beam,Leaving upon her snowy browThe impress of a heavenly dream:
That she, when her frail body yields,And fades away to mortal eyes,Shall burst through Heaven's eternal fields,And bloom again--in Paradise.
Words in this poem
- chillness n.
- Coolness; coldness; a chill.
- glare v. i.
- To shine with a bright, dazzling light. [OE. glaren, gloren; cf. AS. glær amber, LG. glaren to glow or burn like coals, D. gloren to glimmer; prob. akin to E. glass.]
- adown adv.
- From a higher to a lower situation; downward; down, to or on the ground. [OE. adun, adoun, adune. AS. of dune off the hill. See Down.]
- grimly a.
- Grim; hideous; stern.
- dally v. i.
- To waste time in effeminate or voluptuous pleasures, or in idleness; to fool away time; to delay unnecessarily; to tarry; to trifle. [OE. , dailien; cf. Icel. pylja to talk, G. dallen, dalen, dahlen, to trifle, talk nonsense, OSw. tule a droll or funny man; or AS. dol foolish, E. dull.]
- reluctantly adv.
- In a reluctant manner.
- averse a.
- Turned away or backward. [L. aversus, p. p. of avertere. See Avert.]
- snowy a.
- White like snow.
- 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 Fading Flower is in the public domain. This text is taken from Farm Ballads, Project Gutenberg ebook #9500; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Will Carleton, The Fading Flower, in Farm Ballads (1873), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9500, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/carleton-farm-ballads/the-fading-flower.html, id L23286.
Form and metre
The Fading Flower is 48 lines in 12 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 11 of its 12 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
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 ABAB airA · dayB · glareA · grayB
- 2 ABAB froA · skyB · belowA · lieB
- 3 ABAB shadeA · breathB · fadeA · deathB
- 4 ABAB seatA · thereB · meetA · hairB
- 5 ABAB lightA · skiesB · flightA · eyesB
- 6 ABAB breastA · sighB · confessedA · dieB
- 7 ABAB tiesA · hereB · prizeA · dearB
- 8 ABAB mindA · wellB · kindA · spellB
- 9 ABAB lieA · deepB · nighA · sleepB
- 10 ABAB beA · skillB · sheA · stillB
- 11 ABAB nowA · beamB · browA · dreamB
- 12 A-A- yieldsA · eyes · fieldsA · paradise
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 |
|---|---|---|
| There is a chillness in the air-- | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| A coldness in the smile of day; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And e'en the sunbeam's crimson glare | 8 | ···/·/˘· |
| Seems shaded with a tinge of gray. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Weary of journeys to and fro, | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| The sun low creeps adown the sky; | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| And on the shivering earth below, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The long, cold shadows grimly lie. | 8 | ···/·/˘· |
| But there will fall a deeper shade, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| More chilling than the Autumn's breath: | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| There is a flower that yet must fade, | 8 | ···/···· |
| And yield its sweetness up to death. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| She sits upon the window-seat, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Musing in mournful silence there, | 8 | /˘·/˘/˘· |
| While on her brow the sunbeams meet, | 8 | ·····/·· |
| And dally with her golden hair. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| She gazes on the sea of light | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| That overflows the western skies, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Till her great soul seems plumed for flight | 8 | ········ |
| From out the window of her eyes. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Hopes unfulfilled have vexed her breast, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Sad smiles have checked the rising sigh; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Until her weary heart confessed, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Reluctantly, that she must die. | 8 | ˘/˘˘···· |
| And she has thought of all the ties-- | 8 | ········ |
| The golden ties--that bind her here; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Of all that she has learned to prize, | 8 | ········ |
| Of all that she has counted dear; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The joys of body, heart, and mind, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The pleasures that she loves so well; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The grasp of friendship, warm and kind, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And love's delicious, hallowed spell. | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘· |
| And she has wept, that she must lie | 8 | ········ |
| Beneath the snow-wreaths, drifted deep, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| With no fond mother standing nigh, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| To watch her in her silent sleep. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And she has prayed, if it might be | 8 | ········ |
| Within the reach of human skill, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And not averse to Heaven, that she | 8 | ··˘/·/·· |
| Might live a little longer still. | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| But earthly hope is gone; and now | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Comes in its place a brighter beam, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Leaving upon her snowy brow | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| The impress of a heavenly dream: | 8 | ·/···/˘· |
| That she, when her frail body yields, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And fades away to mortal eyes, | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| Shall burst through Heaven's eternal fields, | 9 | ···/˘˘/˘· |
| And bloom again--in Paradise. | 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.