Comforted
THE last sweet flowers are dying,The last green leaves are red;The wild geese southward flying,By law mysterious led,Scream noisily o’erhead;The honey-bees have hived them,The butterflies have shrived them;All hushed the song and twitterAnd flutter of glad wing;—How could we bear the autumnIf t’were not for the spring?
To see the summer banished,Nor dare to bid her stay;To mourn o’er beauty vanishedAnd joyance driven away;To mark the shortening day;To note the sad winds plaining,The storm cloud and the raining;To see the frost lance stabbingEach faint and wounded thing;—Oh, we should hate the autumnExcepting for the spring!
To know that life is failingAnd pulses beating slow;To catch the unavailingSad monotones of woeAll the earth over go;To know that snows must coverThe grave of friend and lover,To hide them from the eyes and handsThat still caress and cling;—The heart would break in autumnIf there were not a spring!
For every sleep a waking,For every shade a sun,A balm for each heart breaking,A rest for labor done,A life by death begun;And so in wintry weather,With smile and sigh together,We look beyond the present pain,The daily loss and sting,And welcome in the autumnFor the sure hope of spring.
Words in this poem
- twitter n.
- One who twits, or reproaches; an upbraider. [From Twit.]
- joyance n.
- Enjoyment; gayety; festivity; joyfulness. [OF. joiance.]
- plaining a.
- Complaining. Bryant.
- caress n.
- An act of endearment; any act or expression of affection; an embracing, or touching, with tenderness. [F. caresse, It. carezza, LL. caritia dearness, fr. L. carus dear. See Charity.]
- wintry a.
- Suitable to winter; resembling winter, or what belongs to winter; brumal; hyemal; cold; stormy; wintery. [AS. wintrig.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Comforted 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, Comforted, in A Few More Verses (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #49518, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/coolidge-few-more-verses/comforted.html, id L23418.
Form and metre
Comforted is 44 lines in 4 stanzas of 11 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
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 ABABBCC-DCD dyingA · redB · flyingA · ledB · o'erheadB · themC · themC · twitter · wingD · autumnC · springD
- 2 ABABBCCDD-D banishedA · stayB · vanishedA · awayB · dayB · plainingC · rainingC · stabbingD · thingD · autumn · springD
- 3 ABABBCC-D-D failingA · slowB · unavailingA · woeB · goB · coverC · loverC · hands · clingD · autumn · springD
- 4 ABABBCC-D-D wakingA · sunB · breakingA · doneB · begunB · weatherC · togetherC · pain · stingD · autumn · springD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| THE last sweet flowers are dying, | 8 | ···/˘·/˘ |
| The last green leaves are red; | 6 | ······ |
| The wild geese southward flying, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| By law mysterious led, | 7 | ··˘/˘˘· |
| Scream noisily o’erhead; | 6 | ·/˘˘·· |
| The honey-bees have hived them, | 8 | ·/˘···˘· |
| The butterflies have shrived them; | 8 | ·/˘···˘· |
| All hushed the song and twitter | 8 | ··˘···/˘ |
| And flutter of glad wing;— | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| How could we bear the autumn | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| If t’were not for the spring? | 6 | ······ |
| To see the summer banished, | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| Nor dare to bid her stay; | 6 | ······ |
| To mourn o’er beauty vanished | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| And joyance driven away; | 7 | ·/˘/˘˘/ |
| To mark the shortening day; | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| To note the sad winds plaining, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| The storm cloud and the raining; | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| To see the frost lance stabbing | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Each faint and wounded thing;— | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Oh, we should hate the autumn | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Excepting for the spring! | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| To know that life is failing | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| And pulses beating slow; | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| To catch the unavailing | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| Sad monotones of woe | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| All the earth over go; | 6 | ······ |
| To know that snows must cover | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| The grave of friend and lover, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| To hide them from the eyes and hands | 8 | ········ |
| That still caress and cling;— | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| The heart would break in autumn | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| If there were not a spring! | 6 | ······ |
| For every sleep a waking, | 8 | ·/˘˘··/˘ |
| For every shade a sun, | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| A balm for each heart breaking, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| A rest for labor done, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| A life by death begun; | 6 | ····˘/ |
| And so in wintry weather, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| With smile and sigh together, | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| We look beyond the present pain, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The daily loss and sting, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And welcome in the autumn | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| For the sure hope of spring. | 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.