Boston Little, Brown, and Company
Copyright, 1889,
Printers
GIVING to all, thou gavest as well to me.A myriad thirsty shores await the tide:They drink and drink, and will not be denied;But not a drop less full the brimming Sea.
One tiny shell among the kelp and weed,One sand-grain where the beaches stretch away,—How shall the tide regard them? Yet each dayIt comes, and fills and satisfies their need.
What can the singing sands give to the Sea?What the dumb shell, though inly it rejoice?Only the echo of its own strong voice;—And this is all that here I bring to thee.
Words in this poem
- myriad n.
- The number of ten thousand; ten thousand persons or things. [Gr. myriade.]
- await v. t.
- To watch for; to look out for. [OF. awaitier, agaitier; (L. ad) + waitier, gaitier to watch, F. guetter. See Wait.]
- brimming a.
- Full to the brim; overflowing.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- inly a.
- Internal; interior; secret. [OE. inlich, AS. inlic. See In.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Boston Little, Brown, and Company is in the public domain. This text is taken from A Few More Verses, Project Gutenberg ebook #49518; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Susan Coolidge, Boston Little, Brown, and Company, in A Few More Verses (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #49518, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/coolidge-few-more-verses/boston-little-brown-and-company.html, id L23405.
Form and metre
Boston Little, Brown, and Company is 14 lines in 5 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABBA, complete in 3 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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.
- 3 ABBA meA · tideB · deniedB · seaA
- 4 ABBA weedA · awayB · dayB · needA
- 5 ABBA seaA · rejoiceB · voiceB · theeA
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Copyright, 1889, | 3 | /˘· |
| Printers | 2 | /˘ |
| GIVING to all, thou gavest as well to me. | 11 | /˘········· |
| A myriad thirsty shores await the tide: | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/·· |
| They drink and drink, and will not be denied; | 10 | ········˘/ |
| But not a drop less full the brimming Sea. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| One tiny shell among the kelp and weed, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| One sand-grain where the beaches stretch away,— | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| How shall the tide regard them? Yet each day | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| It comes, and fills and satisfies their need. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| What can the singing sands give to the Sea? | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| What the dumb shell, though inly it rejoice? | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Only the echo of its own strong voice;— | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| And this is all that here I bring to thee. | 10 | ·········· |
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.