September Woodlands
This is not sadness in the wood;The yellowbirdFlits joying through the solitude,By no thought stirredSave of his little duskier mateAnd rompings jolly.
If there's a Dryad in the wood,She is not sad.Too wise the spirits are to brood;Divinely glad,They dream with countenance sedateNot melancholy.
Words in this poem
- sadness n.
- Heaviness; firmness.
- dryad n.
- A wood nymph; a nymph whose life was bound up with that of her tree. [L. dryas, pl. dryades, Gr. Tree.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
September Woodlands 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, September Woodlands, in More Songs from Vagabondia (1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18007, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/carman-vagabondia/september-woodlands.html, id L24712.
Form and metre
September Woodlands is 12 lines in 2 stanzas of 6 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
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 -A-A-- wood · yellowbirdA · solitude · stirredA · mate · jolly
- 2 -A-A-- wood · sadA · brood · gladA · sedate · melancholy
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 |
|---|---|---|
| This is not sadness in the wood; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The yellowbird | 4 | ·/˘˘ |
| Flits joying through the solitude, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| By no thought stirred | 4 | ···· |
| Save of his little duskier mate | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And rompings jolly. | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| If there's a Dryad in the wood, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| She is not sad. | 4 | ···· |
| Too wise the spirits are to brood; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Divinely glad, | 4 | ˘/˘· |
| They dream with countenance sedate | 8 | ···/˘˘˘/ |
| Not melancholy. | 5 | ·/˘·˘ |
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.