Song
Summer for thee grant I may beWhen summer days are flown!Thy music still when whippoorwillAnd oriole are done!
For thee to bloom, I'll skip the tombAnd sow my blossoms o'er!Pray gather me, Anemone,Thy flower forevermore!
Words in this poem
- flown a.
- Flushed, inflated.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Song 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, Song, in Poems (1890–1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12242, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dickinson-poems/song.html, id L03774.
Form and metre
Song is 8 lines in 2 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is short measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.8 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 38% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in short 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.
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 short measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Summer for thee grant I may be | 8 | /˘······ |
| When summer days are flown! | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Thy music still when whippoorwill | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| And oriole are done! | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| For thee to bloom, I'll skip the tomb | 8 | ········ |
| And sow my blossoms o'er! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Pray gather me, Anemone, | 7 | ·/˘·/˘· |
| Thy flower forevermore! | 7 | ·/˘···· |
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.