The Redbird
Among the white haw-blossoms, where the creekDroned under drifts of dogwood and of haw,The redbird, like a crimson blossom blownAgainst the snow-white bosom of the Spring,The chaste confusion of her lawny breast,Sang on, prophetic of serener days,As confident as June's completer hours.And I stood listening like a hind, who hearsA wood nymph breathing in a forest fluteAmong the beech-boles of myth-haunted ways:And when it ceased, the memory of the airBlew like a syrinx in my brain: I madeA lyric of the notes that men might know:
He flies with flirt and fluting--As flies a crimson starFrom flaming star-beds shooting--From where the roses are.
Wings past and sings; and sevenNotes, wild as fragrance is,--That turn to flame in heaven,--Float round him full of bliss.
He sings; each burning featherThrills, throbbing at his throat;A song of firefly weather,And of a glowworm boat:
Of Elfland and a princessWho, born of a perfume,His music rocks,--where wincesThat rosebud's cradled bloom.
No bird sings half so airy,No bird of dusk or dawn,Thou masking King of Faery!Thou red-crowned Oberon!
Words in this poem
- lawny a.
- Having a lawn; characterized by a lawn or by lawns; like a lawn.
- haunted a.
- Inhabited by, or subject to the visits of, apparitions; frequented by a ghost.
- firefly n.
- Any luminous winged insect, esp. luminous beetles of the family Lampyridæ.
- glowworm n.
- A coleopterous insect of the genus Lampyris; esp., the wingless females and larvæ of the two European species (L. noctiluca, and L.
- princess n.
- A female prince; a woman having sovereign power, or the rank of a prince. [F. princesse. See Prince, and cf. Princesse.]
- oberon n.
- The king of the fairies, and husband of Titania or Queen Mab. [F., fr. OF. Auberon; prob. of Frankish origin.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Redbird 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, The Redbird, in Poems (1911), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7796, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/cawein-poems/the-redbird.html, id L10839.
Form and metre
The Redbird is 33 lines in 6 stanzas. The commonest rhyme scheme is ABAB, in 2 of the 6 stanzas; the rest vary or could not be confirmed. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.9 syllables. 9 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 33% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in common measure.
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--A--- creek · haw · blown · spring · breast · daysA · hoursA · hears · flute · waysA · air · made · know
- 2 ABAB flutingA · starB · shootingA · areB
- 3 A-A- sevenA · is · heavenA · bliss
- 4 ABAB featherA · throatB · weatherA · boatB
- 5 -A-A princess · perfumeA · winces · bloomA
- 6 A-A- airyA · dawn · faeryA · oberon
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Among the white haw-blossoms, where the creek | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Droned under drifts of dogwood and of haw, | 10 | ·····/···· |
| The redbird, like a crimson blossom blown | 10 | ·/···/˘/˘· |
| Against the snow-white bosom of the Spring, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| The chaste confusion of her lawny breast, | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| Sang on, prophetic of serener days, | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| As confident as June's completer hours. | 9 | ·/˘·····/ |
| And I stood listening like a hind, who hears | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| A wood nymph breathing in a forest flute | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Among the beech-boles of myth-haunted ways: | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And when it ceased, the memory of the air | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Blew like a syrinx in my brain: I made | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| A lyric of the notes that men might know: | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| He flies with flirt and fluting-- | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| As flies a crimson star | 6 | ···/˘· |
| From flaming star-beds shooting-- | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| From where the roses are. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Wings past and sings; and seven | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Notes, wild as fragrance is,-- | 6 | ···/˘· |
| That turn to flame in heaven,-- | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Float round him full of bliss. | 6 | ······ |
| He sings; each burning feather | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Thrills, throbbing at his throat; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| A song of firefly weather, | 8 | ···/˘·/˘ |
| And of a glowworm boat: | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Of Elfland and a princess | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| Who, born of a perfume, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| His music rocks,--where winces | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| That rosebud's cradled bloom. | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| No bird sings half so airy, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| No bird of dusk or dawn, | 6 | ······ |
| Thou masking King of Faery! | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Thou red-crowned Oberon! | 6 | ···/˘· |
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.