A Yellow Pansy
To the wall of the old green gardenA butterfly quivering came;His wings on the sombre lichensPlayed like a yellow flame.
He looked at the gray geraniums,And the sleepy four-o’-clocks;He looked at the low lanes borderedWith the glossy-growing box.
He longed for the peace and the silence,And the shadows that lengthened there,And his wee wild heart was wearyOf skimming the endless air.
And now in the old green garden,--I know not how it came,--A single pansy is blooming,Bright as a yellow flame.
And whenever a gay gust passes,It quivers as if with pain,For the butterfly-soul that is in itLongs for the winds again!
Words in this poem
- sombre n.
- Gloom; obscurity; duskiness; somberness.
- skimming n.
- The act of one who skims.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Yellow Pansy is in the public domain. This text is taken from A chant of love for England, and other poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #71425; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Helen Gray Cone, A Yellow Pansy, in A Chant of Love for England, and Other Poems (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #71425, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/cone-chant-for-england/a-yellow-pansy.html, id L22062.
Form and metre
A Yellow Pansy is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 76%).
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 -A-A garden · cameA · lichens · flameA
- 2 -A-A geraniums · clocksA · bordered · boxA
- 3 -A-A silence · thereA · weary · airA
- 4 -A-A garden · cameA · blooming · flameA
- 5 -A-A passes · painA · it · againA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| To the wall of the old green garden | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| A butterfly quivering came; | 8 | ·/˘·/˘˘· |
| His wings on the sombre lichens | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Played like a yellow flame. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| He looked at the gray geraniums, | 10 | ··˘···˘/˘˘ |
| And the sleepy four-o’-clocks; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| He looked at the low lanes bordered | 10 | ··˘····/˘˘ |
| With the glossy-growing box. | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| He longed for the peace and the silence, | 10 | ··˘·····/˘ |
| And the shadows that lengthened there, | 9 | ··/··/˘˘· |
| And his wee wild heart was weary | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Of skimming the endless air. | 7 | ·/˘·/˘· |
| And now in the old green garden,-- | 8 | ······/˘ |
| I know not how it came,-- | 6 | ······ |
| A single pansy is blooming, | 8 | ·/˘/˘·/˘ |
| Bright as a yellow flame. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And whenever a gay gust passes, | 9 | ·˘/˘···/˘ |
| It quivers as if with pain, | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| For the butterfly-soul that is in it | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| Longs for the winds again! | 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.