Aubade
Awake! the dawn is on the hills!Behold, at her cool throat a rose,Blue-eyed and beautiful she goes,Leaving her steps in daffodils.--Awake! arise! and let me seeThine eyes, whose deeps epitomizeAll dawns that were or are to be,O love, all Heaven in thine eyes!--Awake! arise! come down to me!
Behold! the dawn is up: behold!How all the birds around her float,Wild rills of music, note on note,Spilling the air with mellow gold.--Arise! awake! and, drawing near,Let me but hear thee and rejoice!Thou, who keep'st captive, sweet and clear,All song, O love, within thy voice!Arise! awake! and let me hear!
See, where she comes, with limbs of day,The dawn! with wild-rose hands and feet,Within whose veins the sunbeams beat,And laughters meet of wind and ray.Arise! come down! and, heart to heart,Love, let me clasp in thee all these--The sunbeam, of which thou art part,And all the rapture of the breeze!--Arise! come down! loved that thou art!
Words in this poem
- epitomize v. t.
- To make an epitome of; to shorten or abridge, as a writing or discourse; to reduce within a smaller space; as, to epitomize the works of Justin.
- sunbeam n.
- A beam or ray of the sun. [AS. sunnebeam.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Aubade 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, Aubade, in Poems (1911), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7796, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/cawein-poems/aubade.html, id L10844.
Form and metre
Aubade is 27 lines in 3 stanzas of 9 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABBACDCDC. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 7% 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 ABBACDCDC hillsA · roseB · goesB · daffodilsA · seeC · epitomizeD · beC · eyesD · meC
- 2 ABBACDCDC beholdA · floatB · noteB · goldA · nearC · rejoiceD · clearC · voiceD · hearC
- 3 ABBACDCDC dayA · feetB · beatB · rayA · heartC · theseD · partC · breezeD · artC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Awake! the dawn is on the hills! | 8 | ˘/······ |
| Behold, at her cool throat a rose, | 8 | ˘/······ |
| Blue-eyed and beautiful she goes, | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| Leaving her steps in daffodils.-- | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| Awake! arise! and let me see | 8 | ˘/˘/···· |
| Thine eyes, whose deeps epitomize | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| All dawns that were or are to be, | 8 | ········ |
| O love, all Heaven in thine eyes!-- | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Awake! arise! come down to me! | 8 | ˘/˘/···· |
| Behold! the dawn is up: behold! | 8 | ˘/····˘/ |
| How all the birds around her float, | 8 | ········ |
| Wild rills of music, note on note, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Spilling the air with mellow gold.-- | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| Arise! awake! and, drawing near, | 8 | ˘/˘/·/˘· |
| Let me but hear thee and rejoice! | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Thou, who keep'st captive, sweet and clear, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| All song, O love, within thy voice! | 8 | ········ |
| Arise! awake! and let me hear! | 8 | ˘/˘/···· |
| See, where she comes, with limbs of day, | 8 | ········ |
| The dawn! with wild-rose hands and feet, | 8 | ········ |
| Within whose veins the sunbeams beat, | 8 | ·····/·· |
| And laughters meet of wind and ray. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Arise! come down! and, heart to heart, | 8 | ˘/······ |
| Love, let me clasp in thee all these-- | 8 | ········ |
| The sunbeam, of which thou art part, | 8 | ·/······ |
| And all the rapture of the breeze!-- | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Arise! come down! loved that thou art! | 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.