A Widow's Weeds
A poor old Widow in her weedsSowed her garden with wild-flower seeds;Not too shallow, and not too deep,And down came April -- drip -- drip -- drip.Up shone May, like gold, and soonGreen as an arbour grew leafy June.And now all summer she sits and sewsWhere willow herb, comfrey, bugloss blows,Teasle and pansy, meadowsweet,Campion, toadflax, and rough hawksbit;Brown bee orchis, and Peals of Bells;Clover, burnet, and thyme she smells;Like Oberon's meadows her garden isDrowsy from dawn to dusk with bees.Weeps she never, but sometimes sighs,And peeps at her garden with bright brown eyes;And all she has is all she needs --A poor Old Widow in her weeds.
Words in this poem
- drip v. i.
- To fall in drops; as, water drips from the eaves. [Akin to LG. drippen, Dan. dryppe, from a noun. See Drop.]
- arbour n.
- A kind of latticework formed of, or covered with, vines, branches of trees, or other plants, for shade; a bower. Sir P. [OE. herber, herbere, properly a garden of herbs, F. herbier, fr. L. herbarium. See Herb, and cf. Herbarium.]
- comfrey n.
- A rough, hairy, perennial plant of several species, of the genus Symphytum. [Prob. from F. conferve, L. conferva, fr. confervere to boil together, in medical language, to heal, grow together. So called on account of its healing power, fo]
- bugloss n.
- A plant of the genus Anchusa, and especially the A.
- toadflax n.
- An herb (Linaria vulgaris) of the Figwort family, having narrow leaves and showy orange and yellow flowers; -- called also butter and eggs, flaxweed, and ramsted.
- needs adv.
- Of necessity; necessarily; indispensably; -- often with must, and equivalent to of need. [Orig. gen. of need, used as an adverb. Cf. - wards.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Widow's Weeds is in the public domain. This text is taken from Peacock Pie, a Book of Rhymes, Project Gutenberg ebook #3753; 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, A Widow's Weeds, in Peacock Pie (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3753, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/de-la-mare-peacock-pie/a-widow-s-weeds.html, id L12593.
Form and metre
A Widow's Weeds is 18 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 56% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 79%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.3 syllables. 22% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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 AA--BB----CC--DDAA weedsA · seedsA · deep · drip · soonB · juneB · sews · blows · meadowsweet · hawksbit · bellsC · smellsC · is · bees · sighsD · eyesD · needsA · weedsA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A poor old Widow in her weeds | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Sowed her garden with wild-flower seeds; | 8 | ··/˘··/· |
| Not too shallow, and not too deep, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| And down came April -- drip -- drip -- drip. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Up shone May, like gold, and soon | 7 | ······· |
| Green as an arbour grew leafy June. | 9 | ···/˘·/˘· |
| And now all summer she sits and sews | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Where willow herb, comfrey, bugloss blows, | 9 | ·/··/˘/˘· |
| Teasle and pansy, meadowsweet, | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| Campion, toadflax, and rough hawksbit; | 8 | /˘/˘···· |
| Brown bee orchis, and Peals of Bells; | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Clover, burnet, and thyme she smells; | 8 | /˘/˘···· |
| Like Oberon's meadows her garden is | 10 | ·/˘·/··/˘· |
| Drowsy from dawn to dusk with bees. | 8 | /˘······ |
| Weeps she never, but sometimes sighs, | 8 | ··/˘·˘/· |
| And peeps at her garden with bright brown eyes; | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| And all she has is all she needs -- | 8 | ········ |
| A poor Old Widow in her weeds. | 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.