Playmates
God permits industrious angelsAfternoons to play.I met one, -- forgot my school-mates,All, for him, straightway.
God calls home the angels promptlyAt the setting sun;I missed mine. How dreary marbles,After playing Crown!
Words in this poem
- industrious a.
- Given to industry; characterized by diligence; constantly, regularly, or habitually occupied; busy; assiduous; not slothful or idle; -- commonly implying devotion to lawful and useful labor. [L. industrius, industriosus: cf. F. industrieux. See Industry.]
- straightway adv.
- Immediately; without loss of time; without delay.
- promptly adv.
- In a prompt manner.
- dreary a.
- Sorrowful; distressful. [OE. dreori, dreri, AS. dreórig, sad; akin to G. traurig, and prob. to AS. dreósan to fall, Goth. driusan. Cf. Dross, Drear, Drizzle, Drowse.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Playmates is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems by Emily Dickinson, Three Series, Complete, Project Gutenberg ebook #12242; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Emily Dickinson, Playmates, in Poems (1890–1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12242, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dickinson-poems/playmates.html, id L03628.
Form and metre
Playmates is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.5 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic 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 -A-A angels · playA · mates · straightwayA
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| God permits industrious angels | 9 | ·˘/˘/˘˘/˘ |
| Afternoons to play. | 5 | ·˘/·· |
| I met one, -- forgot my school-mates, | 8 | ···˘/··· |
| All, for him, straightway. | 5 | ···/˘ |
| God calls home the angels promptly | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| At the setting sun; | 5 | ··/˘· |
| I missed mine. How dreary marbles, | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| After playing Crown! | 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.