A Niëllo I
It is not early spring and yetOf bloodroot blooms along the stream,And blotted banks of violet,My heart will dream.
Is it because the windflower apesThe beauty that was once her brow,That the white memory of it shapesThe April now?
Because the wild-rose wears the blushThat once made sweet her maidenhood,Its thought makes June of barren bushAnd empty wood?
And then I think how young she died--Straight, barren Death stalks down the trees,The hard-eyed Hours by his side,That kill and freeze.
Words in this poem
- windflower n.
- The anemone; -- so called because formerly supposed to open only when the wind was blowing. See Anemone.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Niëllo I is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #7796; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Madison Julius Cawein, A Niëllo I, in Poems (1911), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7796, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/cawein-poems/a-ni-llo-i.html, id L10840.
Form and metre
A Niëllo I is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.0 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 31% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 yetA · streamB · violetA · dreamB
- 2 ABAB apesA · browB · shapesA · nowB
- 3 -A-A blush · maidenhoodA · bush · woodA
- 4 ABAB diedA · treesB · sideA · freezeB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| It is not early spring and yet | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Of bloodroot blooms along the stream, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| And blotted banks of violet, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘˘ |
| My heart will dream. | 4 | ···· |
| Is it because the windflower apes | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The beauty that was once her brow, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| That the white memory of it shapes | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The April now? | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Because the wild-rose wears the blush | 8 | ········ |
| That once made sweet her maidenhood, | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| Its thought makes June of barren bush | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And empty wood? | 4 | ·/˘· |
| And then I think how young she died-- | 8 | ········ |
| Straight, barren Death stalks down the trees, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The hard-eyed Hours by his side, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| That kill and freeze. | 4 | ···· |
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.