Midsummer
The mellow smell of hollyhocksAnd marigolds and pinks and phloxBlends with the homely garden scentsOf onions, silvering into rods;Of peppers, scarlet with their pods;And (rose of all the esculents)Of broad plebeian cabbages,Breathing content and corpulent ease.
The buzz of wasp and fly makes hotThe spaces of the garden-plot;And from the orchard,--where the fruitRipens and rounds, or, loosed with heat,Rolls, hornet-clung, before the feet,--One hears the veery's golden flute,That mixes with the sleepy humOf bees that drowsily go and come.
The podded musk of gourd and vineEmbower a gate of roughest pine,That leads into a wood where daySits, leaning o'er a forest pool,Watching the lilies opening cool,And dragonflies at airy play,While, dim and near, the quietnessRustles and stirs her leafy dress.
Far-off a cowbell clangs awakeThe noon who slumbers in the brake:And now a pewee, plaintively,Whistles the day to sleep again:A rain-crow croaks a rune for rain,And from the ripest apple treeA great gold apple thuds, where, slow,The red cock curves his neck to crow.
Hens cluck their broods from place to place,While clinking home, with chain and trace,The cart-horse plods along the roadWhere afternoon sits with his dreams:Hot fragrance of hay-making streamsAbove him, and a high-heaped loadGoes creaking by and with it, sweet,The aromatic soul of heat.
"Coo-ee! coo-ee!" the evenfallCries, and the hills repeat the call:"Coo-ee! coo-ee!" and by the logLabor unharnesses his plow,While to the barn comes cow on cow:"Coo-ee! coo-ee!"--and, with his dog,Barefooted boyhood down the lane"Coo-ees" the cattle home again.
Words in this poem
- phlox n.
- A genus of American herbs, having showy red, white, or purple flowers. Phlox worm (Zoöl.), the larva of an American moth (Heliothis phloxiphaga). It is destructive to phloxes.
- homely a.
- Belonging to, or having the characteristics of, home; domestic; familiar; intimate. [From Home, n.]
- clung a.
- Wasted away; shrunken. [Prop. p. p. fr. OE. clingen to wither. See Cling, v. i.]
- drowsily adv.
- In a drowsy manner.
- embower v. t.
- To cover with a bower; to shelter with trees.
- pewee n.
- A common American tyrant flycatcher (Sayornis phoebe, or S. [So called from its note.]
- rune n.
- A letter, or character, belonging to the written language of the ancient Norsemen, or Scandinavians; in a wider sense, applied to the letters of the ancient nations of Northern Europe in general. [AS. run a rune, a secret, a mystery; akin to Icel. run, OHG. & Goth. runa a secret, secret colloquy, G. & Dan. rune rune, and probably to Gr. 'ereyna^n to searc]
- cluck v. i.
- To make the noise, or utter the call, of a brooding hen. Ray. [AS. cloccian; cf. D. klokken, G. glucken, glucksen, LG. klukken, Dan. klukke; all prob. of imitative origin.]
- afternoon n.
- The part of the day which follows noon, between noon and evening.
- evenfall n.
- Beginning of evening.
- barefooted a.
- Having the feet bare.
- boyhood n.
- The state of being a boy; the time during which one is a boy. [Boy + -hood.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Midsummer 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, Midsummer, in Poems (1911), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7796, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/cawein-poems/midsummer.html, id L10876.
Form and metre
Midsummer is 48 lines in 6 stanzas of 8 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABCCBDD, complete in 4 of its 6 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 35% 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 ---AA-BB hollyhocks · phlox · scents · rodsA · podsA · esculents · cabbagesB · easeB
- 2 AABCCBDD hotA · plotA · fruitB · heatC · feetC · fluteB · humD · comeD
- 3 AABCCBDD vineA · pineA · dayB · poolC · coolC · playB · quietnessD · dressD
- 4 AA-BB-CC awakeA · brakeA · plaintively · againB · rainB · tree · slowC · crowC
- 5 AABCCBDD placeA · traceA · roadB · dreamsC · streamsC · loadB · sweetD · heatD
- 6 AABCCBDD evenfallA · callA · logB · plowC · cowC · dogB · laneD · againD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The mellow smell of hollyhocks | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And marigolds and pinks and phlox | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Blends with the homely garden scents | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Of onions, silvering into rods; | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Of peppers, scarlet with their pods; | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| And (rose of all the esculents) | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| Of broad plebeian cabbages, | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘˘ |
| Breathing content and corpulent ease. | 9 | /˘/˘·/˘˘· |
| The buzz of wasp and fly makes hot | 8 | ········ |
| The spaces of the garden-plot; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And from the orchard,--where the fruit | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Ripens and rounds, or, loosed with heat, | 8 | /˘······ |
| Rolls, hornet-clung, before the feet,-- | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| One hears the veery's golden flute, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| That mixes with the sleepy hum | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Of bees that drowsily go and come. | 9 | ···/˘˘··· |
| The podded musk of gourd and vine | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Embower a gate of roughest pine, | 9 | ˘/˘···/˘· |
| That leads into a wood where day | 8 | ········ |
| Sits, leaning o'er a forest pool, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Watching the lilies opening cool, | 8 | /˘·/˘/˘· |
| And dragonflies at airy play, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| While, dim and near, the quietness | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| Rustles and stirs her leafy dress. | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| Far-off a cowbell clangs awake | 8 | ···/··˘/ |
| The noon who slumbers in the brake: | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And now a pewee, plaintively, | 8 | ···/˘/·˘ |
| Whistles the day to sleep again: | 8 | /˘····˘/ |
| A rain-crow croaks a rune for rain, | 8 | ········ |
| And from the ripest apple tree | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| A great gold apple thuds, where, slow, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The red cock curves his neck to crow. | 8 | ········ |
| Hens cluck their broods from place to place, | 8 | ········ |
| While clinking home, with chain and trace, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The cart-horse plods along the road | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Where afternoon sits with his dreams: | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Hot fragrance of hay-making streams | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Above him, and a high-heaped load | 8 | ········ |
| Goes creaking by and with it, sweet, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The aromatic soul of heat. | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| "Coo-ee! coo-ee!" the evenfall | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| Cries, and the hills repeat the call: | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| "Coo-ee! coo-ee!" and by the log | 8 | ········ |
| Labor unharnesses his plow, | 8 | /˘······ |
| While to the barn comes cow on cow: | 8 | ········ |
| "Coo-ee! coo-ee!"--and, with his dog, | 8 | ········ |
| Barefooted boyhood down the lane | 8 | /·˘/···· |
| "Coo-ees" the cattle home again. | 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.