The one that could repeat the summer day
The one that could repeat the summer dayWere greater than itself, though heMinutest of mankind might be.And who could reproduce the sun,At period of going down --The lingering and the stain, I mean --When Orient has been outgrown,And Occident becomes unknown,His name remain.
About this text
The one that could repeat the summer day 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 one that could repeat the summer day, in Poems (1890–1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12242, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dickinson-poems/the-one-that-could-repeat-the-summer-day.html, id L18975.
Form and metre
The one that could repeat the summer day is 9 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
See 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- day · heA · beA · sun · down · mean · outgrownB · unknownB · remain
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The one that could repeat the summer day | 10 | ····˘/·/˘· |
| Were greater than itself, though he | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| Minutest of mankind might be. | 8 | /˘˘·//·· |
| And who could reproduce the sun, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| At period of going down -- | 8 | ·/˘˘·/˘· |
| The lingering and the stain, I mean -- | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| When Orient has been outgrown, | 8 | ·/˘····/ |
| And Occident becomes unknown, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘/ |
| His name remain. | 4 | ··˘/ |
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.