The First Julep
I love the lazy Southern spring,The way she melts around a chapAnd lets the great magnolias flingTheir languid petals in his lap.
I love to travel down half-wayAnd meet her coming up the earth,With hurdy-gurdy men who playAnd make the children dance for mirth.
But best of all I love to steerFor quiet corners not too far,Where the first juleps reappearWith fresh green mint behind the bar.
P. S. Perhaps you'll think it queer,But I do not dislike a hintTo let the juleps disappearAnd stick my nose into the mint.
Words in this poem
- reappear v. i.
- To appear again.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The First Julep 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, The First Julep, in More Songs from Vagabondia (1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18007, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/carman-vagabondia/the-first-julep.html, id L24701.
Form and metre
The First Julep is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 97%).
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 springA · chapB · flingA · lapB
- 2 ABAB wayA · earthB · playA · mirthB
- 3 ABAB steerA · farB · reappearA · barB
- 4 ABAB queerA · hintB · disappearA · mintB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I love the lazy Southern spring, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| The way she melts around a chap | 8 | ········ |
| And lets the great magnolias fling | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Their languid petals in his lap. | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| I love to travel down half-way | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And meet her coming up the earth, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| With hurdy-gurdy men who play | 8 | ········ |
| And make the children dance for mirth. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| But best of all I love to steer | 8 | ········ |
| For quiet corners not too far, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Where the first juleps reappear | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| With fresh green mint behind the bar. | 8 | ········ |
| P. S. Perhaps you'll think it queer, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| But I do not dislike a hint | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| To let the juleps disappear | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| And stick my nose into the mint. | 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.