Paths
What words of mine can tell the spellOf garden ways I know so well?--The path that takes me in the springPast quince-trees where the bluebirds sing,And peonies are blossoming,Unto a porch, wistaria-hung,Around whose steps May-lilies blow,A fair girl reaches down among,Her arm more white than their sweet snow.
What words of mine can tell the spellOf garden ways I know so well?--Another path that leads me, whenThe summer time is here again,Past hollyhocks that shame the westWhen the red sun has sunk to rest;To roses bowering a nest,A lattice, 'neath which mignonetteAnd deep geraniums surge and sough,Where, in the twilight, starless yet,A fair girl's eyes are stars enough.
What words of mine can tell the spellOf garden ways I know so well?--A path that takes me, when the daysOf autumn wrap the hills in haze,Beneath the pippin-pelting tree,'Mid flitting butterfly and bee;Unto a door where, fiery,The creeper climbs; and, garnet-hued,The cock's-comb and the dahlia flare,And in the door, where shades intrude,Gleams bright a fair girl's sunbeam hair.
What words of mine can tell the spellOf garden ways I know so well?--A path that brings me through the frostOf winter, when the moon is tossedIn clouds; beneath great cedars, weakWith shaggy snow; past shrubs blown bleakWith shivering leaves; to eaves that leakThe tattered ice, whereunder isA fire-flickering window-space;And in the light, with lips to kiss,A fair girl's welcome-smiling face.
Words in this poem
- mignonette n.
- A plant (Reseda odorata) having greenish flowers with orange- colored stamens, and exhaling a delicious fragrance. In Africa it is a low shrub, but further north it is usually an annual herb. [F. mignonnette, dim. of mignon darling. See 2d Minion.]
- sough n.
- A small drain; an adit. W. M. Buchanan. [Etymol. uncertain.]
- starless a.
- Being without stars; having no stars visible; as, a starless night.
- flitting n.
- A flying with lightness and celerity; a fluttering.
- flare v. i.
- To burn with an unsteady or waving flame; as, the candle flares. [Cf. Norw. flara to blaze, flame, adorn with tinsel, dial. Sw. flasa upp, and E. flash, or flacker.]
- sunbeam n.
- A beam or ray of the sun. [AS. sunnebeam.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Paths 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, Paths, in Poems (1911), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7796, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/cawein-poems/paths.html, id L10897.
Form and metre
Paths is 42 lines in 4 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 52% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 36% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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 AABBBCDCD spellA · wellA · springB · singB · blossomingB · hungC · blowD · amongC · snowD
- 2 AABBCCCDEDE spellA · wellA · whenB · againB · westC · restC · nestC · mignonetteD · soughE · yetD · enoughE
- 3 AABBCC-DEDE spellA · wellA · daysB · hazeB · treeC · beeC · fiery · huedD · flareE · intrudeD · hairE
- 4 AABBCCC-D-D spellA · wellA · frostB · tossedB · weakC · bleakC · leakC · is · spaceD · kiss · faceD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| What words of mine can tell the spell | 8 | ········ |
| Of garden ways I know so well?-- | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The path that takes me in the spring | 8 | ········ |
| Past quince-trees where the bluebirds sing, | 8 | ·····/·· |
| And peonies are blossoming, | 8 | ·/˘˘·/˘˘ |
| Unto a porch, wistaria-hung, | 9 | ····˘/˘˘· |
| Around whose steps May-lilies blow, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| A fair girl reaches down among, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Her arm more white than their sweet snow. | 8 | ········ |
| What words of mine can tell the spell | 8 | ········ |
| Of garden ways I know so well?-- | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Another path that leads me, when | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
| The summer time is here again, | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| Past hollyhocks that shame the west | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| When the red sun has sunk to rest; | 8 | ········ |
| To roses bowering a nest, | 8 | ·/˘/˘˘·· |
| A lattice, 'neath which mignonette | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And deep geraniums surge and sough, | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| Where, in the twilight, starless yet, | 8 | ···/·/˘· |
| A fair girl's eyes are stars enough. | 8 | ······˘/ |
| What words of mine can tell the spell | 8 | ········ |
| Of garden ways I know so well?-- | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| A path that takes me, when the days | 8 | ········ |
| Of autumn wrap the hills in haze, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Beneath the pippin-pelting tree, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| 'Mid flitting butterfly and bee; | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Unto a door where, fiery, | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| The creeper climbs; and, garnet-hued, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The cock's-comb and the dahlia flare, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And in the door, where shades intrude, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Gleams bright a fair girl's sunbeam hair. | 8 | ·····/·· |
| What words of mine can tell the spell | 8 | ········ |
| Of garden ways I know so well?-- | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| A path that brings me through the frost | 8 | ········ |
| Of winter, when the moon is tossed | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| In clouds; beneath great cedars, weak | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| With shaggy snow; past shrubs blown bleak | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| With shivering leaves; to eaves that leak | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The tattered ice, whereunder is | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| A fire-flickering window-space; | 8 | ·//˘˘/˘· |
| And in the light, with lips to kiss, | 8 | ········ |
| A fair girl's welcome-smiling face. | 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.