Patty
Ye swampy falls of pasture ground,And rushy spreading greens;Ye rising swells in brambles bound,And freedom’s wilder’d scenes;I’ve trod ye oft, and love ye dear,And kind was fate to let me;On you I found my all, for here’Twas first my Patty met me.
Flow on, thou gently plashing stream,O’er weed-beds wild and rank;Delighted I’ve enjoy’d my dreamUpon thy mossy bank:Bemoistening many a weedy stem,I’ve watched thee wind so clearly;And on thy bank I found the gemThat makes me love thee dearly.
Thou wilderness, so rudely gay;Oft as I seek thy plain,Oft as I wend my steps away,And meet my joys again,And brush the weaving branches byOf briars and thorns so matty;So oft Reflection warms a sigh,--Here first I meet my Patty.
Words in this poem
- swampy a.
- Consisting of swamp; like a swamp; low, wet, and spongy; as, swampy land.
- rushy a.
- Abounding with rushes.
- plashing n.
- The cutting or bending and intertwining the branches of small trees, as in hedges.
- delighted a.
- Endowed with delight.
- weedy a.
- Of or pertaining to weeds; consisting of weeds.
- wend n.
- A large extent of ground; a perambulation; a circuit.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Patty is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #52601; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Clare, Patty, in Poems (1820–1835), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #52601, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/clare-poems/patty.html, id L06661.
Form and metre
Patty is 24 lines in 3 stanzas of 8 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABABCDCD. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.4 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 17% 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 ABABCDCD groundA · greensB · boundA · scenesB · dearC · meD · hereC · meD
- 2 ABABCDCD streamA · rankB · dreamA · bankB · stemC · clearlyD · gemC · dearlyD
- 3 ABABCDCD gayA · plainB · awayA · againB · byC · mattyD · sighC · pattyD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Ye swampy falls of pasture ground, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And rushy spreading greens; | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Ye rising swells in brambles bound, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And freedom’s wilder’d scenes; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| I’ve trod ye oft, and love ye dear, | 8 | ········ |
| And kind was fate to let me; | 7 | ······· |
| On you I found my all, for here | 8 | ········ |
| ’Twas first my Patty met me. | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| Flow on, thou gently plashing stream, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| O’er weed-beds wild and rank; | 6 | ······ |
| Delighted I’ve enjoy’d my dream | 8 | ˘/˘·˘/·· |
| Upon thy mossy bank: | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Bemoistening many a weedy stem, | 10 | ····/˘·/˘· |
| I’ve watched thee wind so clearly; | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| And on thy bank I found the gem | 8 | ········ |
| That makes me love thee dearly. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Thou wilderness, so rudely gay; | 8 | ·/˘˘·/˘· |
| Oft as I seek thy plain, | 6 | ······ |
| Oft as I wend my steps away, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| And meet my joys again, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| And brush the weaving branches by | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Of briars and thorns so matty; | 8 | ·/˘···/˘ |
| So oft Reflection warms a sigh,-- | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| Here first I meet my Patty. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
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.