Words
A LITTLE, tender word,Wrapped in a little rhyme,Sent out upon the passing air,As seeds are scattered everywhereIn the sweet summer-time.
A little, idle word,Breathed in an idle hour;Between two laughs that word was said,Forgotten as soon as uttered,And yet the word had power.
Away they sped, the words:One, like a wingèd seed,Lit on a soul which gave it room,And straight began to bud and bloomIn lovely word and deed.
The other careless word,Borne on an evil air,Found a rich soil, and ripened fastIts rank and poisonous growths, and castFresh seeds to work elsewhere.
The speakers of the wordsPassed by and marked, one day,The fragrant blossoms dewy wet,The baneful flowers thickly setIn clustering array.
And neither knew his word;One smiled, and one did sigh.“How strange and sad,” one said, “it isPeople should do such things as this!I’m glad it was not I.”
And, “What a wondrous wordTo reach so far, so high!”The other said, “What joy ’twould beTo send out words so helpfully!I wish that it were I.”
Words in this poem
- baneful a.
- Having poisonous qualities; deadly; destructive; injurious; noxious; pernicious.
- wondrous adv.
- In a wonderful or surprising manner or degree; wonderfully. [OE. wonders, adv. (later also adj.). See Wonder, n., and cf. -wards.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Words 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, Words, in A Few More Verses (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #49518, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/coolidge-few-more-verses/words.html, id L23419.
Form and metre
Words is 35 lines in 7 stanzas of 5 lines each. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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 -ABBA word · rhymeA · airB · everywhereB · timeA
- 2 ABAAB wordA · hourB · saidA · utteredA · powerB
- 3 -ABBA words · seedA · roomB · bloomB · deedA
- 4 -ABBA word · airA · fastB · castB · elsewhereA
- 5 -ABBA words · dayA · wetB · setB · arrayA
- 6 -A--A word · sighA · is · this · iA
- 7 -AA-A word · highA · beA · helpfully · iA
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| A LITTLE, tender word, | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Wrapped in a little rhyme, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Sent out upon the passing air, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| As seeds are scattered everywhere | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| In the sweet summer-time. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| A little, idle word, | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Breathed in an idle hour; | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Between two laughs that word was said, | 8 | ········ |
| Forgotten as soon as uttered, | 8 | ˘/˘···/˘ |
| And yet the word had power. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Away they sped, the words: | 6 | ˘/···· |
| One, like a wingèd seed, | 5 | ····· |
| Lit on a soul which gave it room, | 8 | ········ |
| And straight began to bud and bloom | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| In lovely word and deed. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The other careless word, | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Borne on an evil air, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Found a rich soil, and ripened fast | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Its rank and poisonous growths, and cast | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Fresh seeds to work elsewhere. | 6 | ····/· |
| The speakers of the words | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Passed by and marked, one day, | 6 | ······ |
| The fragrant blossoms dewy wet, | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| The baneful flowers thickly set | 7 | ·/˘//˘· |
| In clustering array. | 6 | ·/˘˘˘/ |
| And neither knew his word; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| One smiled, and one did sigh. | 6 | ······ |
| “How strange and sad,” one said, “it is | 8 | ········ |
| People should do such things as this! | 8 | /˘······ |
| I’m glad it was not I.” | 6 | ······ |
| And, “What a wondrous word | 6 | ···/˘· |
| To reach so far, so high!” | 6 | ······ |
| The other said, “What joy ’twould be | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| To send out words so helpfully! | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| I wish that it were I.” | 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.