Secrets
The skies can't keep their secret!They tell it to the hills --The hills just tell the orchards --And they the daffodils!
A bird, by chance, that goes that waySoft overheard the whole.If I should bribe the little bird,Who knows but she would tell?
I think I won't, however,It's finer not to know;If summer were an axiom,What sorcery had snow?
So keep your secret, Father!I would not, if I could,Know what the sapphire fellows do,In your new-fashioned world!
Words in this poem
- bribe n.
- A gift begged; a present. [F. bribe a lump of bread, scraps, leavings of meals (that are generally given to a beggar), LL. briba scrap of bread; cf. OF. briber, brifer, to eat gluttonousl]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Secrets 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, Secrets, in Poems (1890–1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12242, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dickinson-poems/secrets.html, id L03687.
Form and metre
Secrets is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.7 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 6% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in common measure.
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 secret · hillsA · orchards · daffodilsA
- 3 -A-A however · knowA · axiom · snowA
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The skies can't keep their secret! | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| They tell it to the hills -- | 6 | ······ |
| The hills just tell the orchards -- | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| And they the daffodils! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| A bird, by chance, that goes that way | 8 | ········ |
| Soft overheard the whole. | 6 | ·/˘/·· |
| If I should bribe the little bird, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Who knows but she would tell? | 6 | ······ |
| I think I won't, however, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| It's finer not to know; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| If summer were an axiom, | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| What sorcery had snow? | 6 | ·/˘˘·· |
| So keep your secret, Father! | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| I would not, if I could, | 6 | ······ |
| Know what the sapphire fellows do, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| In your new-fashioned world! | 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.