The Grass
The grass so little has to do, --A sphere of simple green,With only butterflies to brood,And bees to entertain,
And stir all day to pretty tunesThe breezes fetch along,And hold the sunshine in its lapAnd bow to everything;
And thread the dews all night, like pearls,And make itself so fine, --A duchess were too commonFor such a noticing.
And even when it dies, to passIn odors so divine,As lowly spices gone to sleep,Or amulets of pine.
And then to dwell in sovereign barns,And dream the days away, --The grass so little has to do,I wish I were the hay!
Words in this poem
- sunshine n.
- The light of the sun, or the place where it shines; the direct rays of the sun, the place where they fall, or the warmth and light which they give.
- duchess n.
- The wife or widow of a duke; also, a lady who has the sovereignty of a duchy in her own right. [F. duchesse, fr. duc duke.]
- dwell v. i.
- To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Grass 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, The Grass, in Poems (1890–1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12242, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dickinson-poems/the-grass.html, id L03604.
Form and metre
The Grass is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.9 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 20% 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.
- 3 -AA- pearls · fineA · commonA · noticing
- 4 -A-A pass · divineA · sleep · pineA
- 5 -A-A barns · awayA · do · hayA
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 grass so little has to do, -- | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| A sphere of simple green, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| With only butterflies to brood, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| And bees to entertain, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| And stir all day to pretty tunes | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The breezes fetch along, | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| And hold the sunshine in its lap | 8 | ···/···· |
| And bow to everything; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And thread the dews all night, like pearls, | 8 | ········ |
| And make itself so fine, -- | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| A duchess were too common | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| For such a noticing. | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| And even when it dies, to pass | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| In odors so divine, | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| As lowly spices gone to sleep, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Or amulets of pine. | 6 | ·/˘˘·· |
| And then to dwell in sovereign barns, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And dream the days away, -- | 6 | ····˘/ |
| The grass so little has to do, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| I wish I were the hay! | 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.