Nymphæa
ÓcymumOrchisOsmúndaOsýris
PapáverPapýrusPlantágoPolymórphaPolypódiumPrúnus
About this text
Nymphæa is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Botanic Garden. Part 2, Containing the Loves of the Plants. A Poem. With Philosophical Notes., Project Gutenberg ebook #10671; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Erasmus Darwin, Nymphæa, in The Botanic Garden, Part II: The Loves of the Plants (1789), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10671, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/darwin-loves-of-plants/nymph-a.html, id L23550.
Form and metre
Nymphæa is 10 lines in 2 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter.
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.
- 1 -A-A ócymum · orchisA · osmúnda · osýrisA
- 2 -A---A papáver · papýrusA · plantágo · polymórpha · polypódium · prúnusA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Ócymum | 2 | ·· |
| Orchis | 2 | /˘ |
| Osmúnda | 3 | ··· |
| Osýris | 3 | ··· |
| Papáver | 3 | ··· |
| Papýrus | 3 | ··· |
| Plantágo | 3 | ··· |
| Polymórpha | 4 | ···· |
| Polypódium | 4 | ···· |
| Prúnus | 2 | ·· |
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.