'The Hawthorn Hath a Deathly Smell'
The flowers of the fieldHave a sweet smell;Meadowsweet, tansy, thyme,And faint-heart pimpernel;But sweeter even than these,The silver of the mayWreathed is with incense forThe Judgment Day.
An apple, a child, dust,When falls the evening rain,Wild briar's spicèd leaves,Breathe memories again;With further memory fraught,The silver of the mayWreathed is with incense forThe Judgment Day.
Eyes of all loveliness--Shadow of strange delight,Even as a flower fadesMust thou from sight;But oh, o'er thy grave's mound,Till come the Judgment Day,Wreathed shall with incense beThy sharp-thorned may.
Words in this poem
- tansy n.
- Any plant of the composite genus Tanacetum. The common tansy (T. vulgare) has finely divided leaves, a strong aromatic odor, and a very bitter taste. It is used for medicinal and culinary purposes. [OE. tansaye, F. tanaise; cf. It. & Sp. tanaceto, NL. tanacetum, Pg. atanasia, athanasia, Gr. 'aqanasi`a immortality, fr. 'aqa`natos immortal; 'a priv. + qa`nato]
- fraught n.
- A freight; a cargo. [OE.fraight, fraght; akin to Dan. fragt, Sw. frakt, D. vracht, G. fracht, cf. OHG. fr merit, reward; perh. from corresponding to E. for + The root of E. own. Cf.]
- loveliness n.
- The state or quality of being lovely. [From Lovely.]
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
'The Hawthorn Hath a Deathly Smell' is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Listeners and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #22569; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Walter de la Mare, 'The Hawthorn Hath a Deathly Smell', in The Listeners and Other Poems (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22569, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/de-la-mare-listeners/the-hawthorn-hath-a-deathly-smell.html, id L17113.
Form and metre
'The Hawthorn Hath a Deathly Smell' is 24 lines in 3 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.6 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 29% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 -----A-A field · smell · thyme · pimpernel · these · mayA · for · dayA
- 2 -A-A-B-B dust · rainA · leaves · againA · fraught · mayB · for · dayB
- 3 -A-A-B-B loveliness · delightA · fades · sightA · mound · dayB · be · mayB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The flowers of the field | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Have a sweet smell; | 4 | ···· |
| Meadowsweet, tansy, thyme, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And faint-heart pimpernel; | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| But sweeter even than these, | 6 | ·/˘/·· |
| The silver of the may | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Wreathed is with incense for | 6 | ···˘/· |
| The Judgment Day. | 4 | ·/˘· |
| An apple, a child, dust, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| When falls the evening rain, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Wild briar's spicèd leaves, | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| Breathe memories again; | 6 | ·/˘˘˘/ |
| With further memory fraught, | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| The silver of the may | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Wreathed is with incense for | 6 | ···˘/· |
| The Judgment Day. | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Eyes of all loveliness-- | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| Shadow of strange delight, | 6 | /···˘/ |
| Even as a flower fades | 6 | /··/˘· |
| Must thou from sight; | 4 | ···· |
| But oh, o'er thy grave's mound, | 6 | ······ |
| Till come the Judgment Day, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Wreathed shall with incense be | 6 | ···˘/· |
| Thy sharp-thorned may. | 5 | ···˘· |
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.