To venerate the simple days
To venerate the simple daysWhich lead the seasons by,Needs but to rememberThat from you or meThey may take the trifleTermed mortality!
To invest existence with a stately air,Needs but to rememberThat the acorn thereIs the egg of forestsFor the upper air!
Words in this poem
- venerate v. t.
- To regard with reverential respect; to honor with mingled respect and awe; to reverence; to revere; as, we venerate parents and elders. [L. veneratus, p. p. of venerari to venerate; akin to Venus Venus, Skr. van to like, to wish, and E. winsome. See Winsome.]
- needs adv.
- Of necessity; necessarily; indispensably; -- often with must, and equivalent to of need. [Orig. gen. of need, used as an adverb. Cf. - wards.]
- mortality n.
- The condition or quality of being mortal; subjection to death or to the necessity of dying. [L. mortalitas: cf. F. mortalité.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To venerate the simple days 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, To venerate the simple days, in Poems (1890–1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12242, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dickinson-poems/to-venerate-the-simple-days.html, id L19006.
Form and metre
To venerate the simple days is 11 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%).
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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-- days · byA · remember · meA · trifle · mortality
- 2 A-A-A airA · remember · thereA · forests · airA
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| To venerate the simple days | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Which lead the seasons by, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Needs but to remember | 6 | ···˘/˘ |
| That from you or me | 5 | ····· |
| They may take the trifle | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Termed mortality! | 6 | ·˘˘/˘˘ |
| To invest existence with a stately air, | 11 | ·˘/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Needs but to remember | 6 | ···˘/˘ |
| That the acorn there | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Is the egg of forests | 6 | ····/˘ |
| For the upper air! | 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.