Helen
THE autumn seems to cry for thee,Best lover of the autumn days!Each scarlet-tipped and wine-red tree,Each russet branch and branch of gold,Gleams through its veil of shimmering haze,And seeks thee as they sought of old;For all the glory of their dress,They wear a look of wistfulness.
In every wood I see thee stand,The ruddy boughs above thy head,And heaped in either slender handThe frosted white and amber ferns,The sumach’s deep, resplendent red,Which like a fiery feather burns,And over all, thy happy eyes,Shining as clear as autumn skies.
I hear thy call upon the breezeGay as the dancing wind, and sweet,And underneath the radiant trees,O’er lichens gray and darkling moss,Follow the trace of those light feetWhich never were at fault or loss,But, by some forest instinct led,Knew where to turn and how to tread.
Where art thou, comrade true and tried?The woodlands call for thee in vain,And sadly burns the autumn-tideBefore my eyes, made dim and blindBy blurring, puzzling mists of pain.I look before, I look behind;Beauty and loss seem everywhere,And grief and glory fill the air.
Already, in these few short weeks,A hundred things I leave unsaid,Because there is no voice that speaksIn answer, and no listening ear,No one to care now thou art dead!And month by month, and year by year,I shall but miss thee more, and goWith half my thought untold, I know.
I do not think thou hast forgot,I know that I shall not forget,And some day, glad, but wondering not,We two shall meet, and face to face,In still, fair fields unseen as yet,Shall talk of each old time and place,And smile at pain interpretedBy wisdom learned since we were dead.
Words in this poem
- shimmering n.
- A gleam or glimmering.
- frosted a.
- Covered with hoarfrost or anything resembling hoarfrost; ornamented with frosting; also, frost-bitten; as, a frosted cake; frosted glass.
- darkling a.
- Becoming dark or gloomy; frowing.
- sadly adv.
- Wearily; heavily; firmly.
- 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,]
- untold a.
- Not told; not related; not revealed; as, untold secrets.
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- unseen a.
- Not seen or discovered.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Helen 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, Helen, in A Few More Verses (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #49518, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/coolidge-few-more-verses/helen.html, id L23497.
Form and metre
Helen is 48 lines in 6 stanzas of 8 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABACBCDD. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
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 ABACBCDD theeA · daysB · treeA · goldC · hazeB · oldC · dressD · wistfulnessD
- 2 ABACBCDD standA · headB · handA · fernsC · redB · burnsC · eyesD · skiesD
- 3 ABACBCDD breezeA · sweetB · treesA · mossC · feetB · lossC · ledD · treadD
- 4 ABACBCDD triedA · vainB · tideA · blindC · painB · behindC · everywhereD · airD
- 5 ABACBCDD weeksA · unsaidB · speaksA · earC · deadB · yearC · goD · knowD
- 6 ABACBCDD forgotA · forgetB · notA · faceC · yetB · placeC · interpretedD · deadD
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 autumn seems to cry for thee, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Best lover of the autumn days! | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Each scarlet-tipped and wine-red tree, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Each russet branch and branch of gold, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Gleams through its veil of shimmering haze, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And seeks thee as they sought of old; | 8 | ········ |
| For all the glory of their dress, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| They wear a look of wistfulness. | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| In every wood I see thee stand, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The ruddy boughs above thy head, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And heaped in either slender hand | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| The frosted white and amber ferns, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The sumach’s deep, resplendent red, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Which like a fiery feather burns, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| And over all, thy happy eyes, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Shining as clear as autumn skies. | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| I hear thy call upon the breeze | 8 | ········ |
| Gay as the dancing wind, and sweet, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And underneath the radiant trees, | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| O’er lichens gray and darkling moss, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Follow the trace of those light feet | 8 | /˘······ |
| Which never were at fault or loss, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| But, by some forest instinct led, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Knew where to turn and how to tread. | 8 | ········ |
| Where art thou, comrade true and tried? | 8 | ···/···· |
| The woodlands call for thee in vain, | 8 | ·/······ |
| And sadly burns the autumn-tide | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Before my eyes, made dim and blind | 8 | ········ |
| By blurring, puzzling mists of pain. | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| I look before, I look behind; | 8 | ········ |
| Beauty and loss seem everywhere, | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| And grief and glory fill the air. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Already, in these few short weeks, | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
| A hundred things I leave unsaid, | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| Because there is no voice that speaks | 8 | ········ |
| In answer, and no listening ear, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| No one to care now thou art dead! | 8 | ········ |
| And month by month, and year by year, | 8 | ········ |
| I shall but miss thee more, and go | 8 | ········ |
| With half my thought untold, I know. | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| I do not think thou hast forgot, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| I know that I shall not forget, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| And some day, glad, but wondering not, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| We two shall meet, and face to face, | 8 | ········ |
| In still, fair fields unseen as yet, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Shall talk of each old time and place, | 8 | ········ |
| And smile at pain interpreted | 8 | ····˘/˘˘ |
| By wisdom learned since we were dead. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
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.