Quince to Lilac: To G. H
Dear Lilac, how enchantingTo hear of you this way!The Man who comes a-mouchingTo visit me each day
Says you too have a loverFar lovelier than I.And from his rapt description,She loves you gloriously.
The Man prowls out each morningTo see if spring's begun.What infinite amusementThese creatures offer one!
He asks me such conundrumsAs no one ever heard:The name of April's father,The trail of every bird,
What keeps me warm in winter,Who wakes me up in time,And why procrastinationIs such a fearful crime.
And yet, who knows? He may beOur equal ages hence--With such pathetic glimmersOf weird intelligence!
But this your blessed alien,Why strays she roving here?Was Orpheus not her brother,Persephone her peer?
Was she not once a dryadWhom Syrinx lulled to sleepBeside the Dorian water,And still her eyelids keep
The glad unperished secretFrom centuries of joy,And memories of the morningWhen Helen sailed for Troy?
Is her name Gertrude, Kitty,Hypatia, or what?I seem to half remember,And yet have quite forgot.
That soft Hellenic laughter!I marvel you don't makeAn effort to be earlyIn budding for her sake.
Just fancy hearing dailyThat velvet voice of hers!How do you quell the riotOf sap her coming stirs?
Perhaps she puts her face up,(Dear Charity she is!)For messages of summerAnd better worlds than this.
You cannot blush, poor Lilac;It is not in your race.I simply should go crimson,If I were in your place.
Do tell her all your secrets!The Man declares she knowsBetter than any mortalThe wonder-trick of prose.
Our prose, I mean,--how beautyAppears to you and me;The truth that seems so simple,Which they call poetry.
They put it down in writingAnd label it with tags,The funny conscious peopleWho mask in colored rags!
They have a thing called science,With phrases strange and pat.My dear, can you imagineIntelligence like that?
And when they first discoverThat yellows are not greens,They pucker up their foreheadsAnd ponder what it means.
And then those cave-like places,Churches and Capitols,Where they all come togetherLike troops of talking dolls,
To govern, as they term it,(It's really very odd!)And have what they call worshipOf something they call God.
But Kitty, or whateverMay be her tender name,Is more like us. She guessesWhat sets the year aflame.
She knows beyond her senses;Do tell her all you can!The funny people need it,--At least, so says The Man.
Good-by, dear. I must idle.Sweet suns and happy rains!How nice to have these humansWith their inventive brains,--
Their little scraps of paper!They certainly evinceRemarkable discernment.Your ever loving Quince.
Words in this poem 15
- rapt n.
- An ecstasy; a trance. Bp. Morton. [From F. rapt abduction, rape, L. raptus, fr. rapere to seize and carry off, to transport; or fr. E. rapt, a. See Rapt, a., and Rapid.]
- amusement n.
- Deep thought; muse. [Cf. F. amusement.]
- pathetic a.
- Expressing or showing anger; passionate. [L. patheticus, Gr. pathétique. See Pathos.]
- orpheus n.
- The famous mythic Thracian poet, son of the Muse Calliope, and husband of Eurydice. He is reputed to have had power to entrance beasts and inanimate objects by the music of his lyre.
- dryad n.
- A wood nymph; a nymph whose life was bound up with that of her tree. [L. dryas, pl. dryades, Gr. Tree.]
- dorian a.
- Of or pertaining to the ancient Greeks of Doris; Doric; as, a Dorian fashion.
- kitty n.
- A kitten; also, a pet name or calling name for the cat.
- hellenic a.
- Of or pertaining to the Hellenes, or inhabitants of Greece; Greek; Grecian.
- quell v. t.
- To take the life of; to kill. [OE. quellen to kill, AS. cwellan, causative of cwelan to die; akin to OHG. quellen to torment, Icel. kvelja. See Quail to cower.]
- funny a.
- Droll; comical; amusing; laughable. Funny bone. See crazy bone, under Crazy. [From Fun.]
- discover v. i.
- To discover or show one's self.
- yellows n.
- A disease of the bile in horses, cattle, and sheep, causing yellowness of the eyes; jaundice.
- pucker v. t.
- To gather into small folds or wrinkles; to contract into ridges and furrows; to corrugate; -- often with up; as, to pucker up the mouth. [From Poke a pocket, small bag.]
- aflame adv.
- Inflames; glowing with light or passion; ablaze. G. Eliot. [Pref. a- + flame.]
- evince v. t.
- To conquer; to subdue. [L. evincere vanquish completely, prevail, succeed in proving; e out + vincere to vanquish. See Victor, and cf. Evict.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Quince to Lilac: To G. H is in the public domain. This text is taken from More Songs From Vagabondia, Project Gutenberg ebook #18007; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Bliss Carman, Quince to Lilac: To G. H, in More Songs from Vagabondia (1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18007, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/carman-vagabondia/quince-to-lilac-to-g-h.html, id L24689.
Form and metre
Quince to Lilac: To G. H is 100 lines in 25 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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 enchantingA · wayB · mouchingA · dayB
- 3 -A-A morning · begunA · amusement · oneA
- 4 -A-A conundrums · heardA · father · birdA
- 5 -A-A winter · timeA · procrastination · crimeA
- 6 -A-A be · henceA · glimmers · intelligenceA
- 7 -A-A alien · hereA · brother · peerA
- 8 -A-A dryad · sleepA · water · keepA
- 9 -A-A secret · joyA · morning · troyA
- 11 -A-A laughter · makeA · early · sakeA
- 12 -A-A daily · hersA · riot · stirsA
- 14 -A-A lilac · raceA · crimson · placeA
- 15 -A-A secrets · knowsA · mortal · proseA
- 17 -A-A writing · tagsA · people · ragsA
- 18 -A-A science · patA · imagine · thatA
- 19 -A-A discover · greensA · foreheads · meansA
- 20 -A-A places · capitolsA · together · dollsA
- 21 -A-A it · oddA · worship · godA
- 22 -A-A whatever · nameA · guesses · aflameA
- 23 -A-A senses · canA · it · manA
- 24 -AAA idle · rainsA · humansA · brainsA
- 25 -A-A paper · evinceA · discernment · quinceA
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Dear Lilac, how enchanting | 7 | ·/··˘/˘ |
| To hear of you this way! | 6 | ······ |
| The Man who comes a-mouching | 7 | ······· |
| To visit me each day | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Says you too have a lover | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Far lovelier than I. | 6 | ······ |
| And from his rapt description, | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| She loves you gloriously. | 7 | ···/˘˘˘ |
| The Man prowls out each morning | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| To see if spring's begun. | 6 | ····˘/ |
| What infinite amusement | 7 | ·/˘˘˘/˘ |
| These creatures offer one! | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| He asks me such conundrums | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| As no one ever heard: | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The name of April's father, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| The trail of every bird, | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| What keeps me warm in winter, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Who wakes me up in time, | 6 | ······ |
| And why procrastination | 7 | ··˘·˘/˘ |
| Is such a fearful crime. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And yet, who knows? He may be | 7 | ······· |
| Our equal ages hence-- | 7 | /˘/˘/˘· |
| With such pathetic glimmers | 7 | ··˘/˘/˘ |
| Of weird intelligence! | 6 | ··˘/˘˘ |
| But this your blessed alien, | 8 | ····˘/˘˘ |
| Why strays she roving here? | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Was Orpheus not her brother, | 8 | ·/˘˘··/˘ |
| Persephone her peer? | 5 | ····· |
| Was she not once a dryad | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Whom Syrinx lulled to sleep | 7 | ·/˘·˘·· |
| Beside the Dorian water, | 8 | ˘/·/˘˘/˘ |
| And still her eyelids keep | 6 | ···/·· |
| The glad unperished secret | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| From centuries of joy, | 6 | ·/˘˘·· |
| And memories of the morning | 8 | ·/˘˘··/˘ |
| When Helen sailed for Troy? | 7 | ·/˘·˘·· |
| Is her name Gertrude, Kitty, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Hypatia, or what? | 5 | ····· |
| I seem to half remember, | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| And yet have quite forgot. | 6 | ····˘/ |
| That soft Hellenic laughter! | 7 | ··˘/˘/˘ |
| I marvel you don't make | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| An effort to be early | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| In budding for her sake. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Just fancy hearing daily | 7 | ·/˘/˘/˘ |
| That velvet voice of hers! | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| How do you quell the riot | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Of sap her coming stirs? | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Perhaps she puts her face up, | 7 | ˘/····· |
| (Dear Charity she is!) | 6 | ·/˘˘·· |
| For messages of summer | 7 | ·/˘˘·/˘ |
| And better worlds than this. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| You cannot blush, poor Lilac; | 7 | ·/˘··/· |
| It is not in your race. | 6 | ······ |
| I simply should go crimson, | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| If I were in your place. | 6 | ······ |
| Do tell her all your secrets! | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| The Man declares she knows | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| Better than any mortal | 7 | /˘·/˘/˘ |
| The wonder-trick of prose. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Our prose, I mean,--how beauty | 8 | /˘····/˘ |
| Appears to you and me; | 6 | ˘/···· |
| The truth that seems so simple, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Which they call poetry. | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| They put it down in writing | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| And label it with tags, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The funny conscious people | 7 | ·/˘/˘/˘ |
| Who mask in colored rags! | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| They have a thing called science, | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| With phrases strange and pat. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| My dear, can you imagine | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| Intelligence like that? | 6 | ˘/˘˘·· |
| And when they first discover | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| That yellows are not greens, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| They pucker up their foreheads | 7 | ·/˘··/· |
| And ponder what it means. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And then those cave-like places, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Churches and Capitols, | 6 | /˘·/˘˘ |
| Where they all come together | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| Like troops of talking dolls, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| To govern, as they term it, | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| (It's really very odd!) | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| And have what they call worship | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Of something they call God. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| But Kitty, or whatever | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| May be her tender name, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Is more like us. She guesses | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| What sets the year aflame. | 6 | ····˘/ |
| She knows beyond her senses; | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Do tell her all you can! | 6 | ······ |
| The funny people need it,-- | 7 | ·/˘/˘·· |
| At least, so says The Man. | 6 | ······ |
| Good-by, dear. I must idle. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Sweet suns and happy rains! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| How nice to have these humans | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| With their inventive brains,-- | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| Their little scraps of paper! | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| They certainly evince | 6 | ·/˘˘˘/ |
| Remarkable discernment. | 7 | ˘/˘˘˘/˘ |
| Your ever loving Quince. | 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.