Late Summer
Though summer long delayethHer blue and golden boon,Yet now at length she stayethHer wings above the noon;She sets the waters dreamingTo murmurous leafy tones,The weeded waters gleamingAbove the stepping-stones.
Where fern and ivied willowLean o’er the seaward brook,I read a volume mellow--A poet’s fairy-book;The seaward brook is narrow,The hazel spans its pride,And like a painted arrowThe king-bird keeps the tide.
Words in this poem
- boon n.
- A prayer or petition. [OE. bone, boin, a petition, fr. Icel. b; akin to Sw. & Dan. b, AS. b, and perh. to E. ban; but influenced by F. bon good, fr. L. bonus. Ban, Bounty.]
- murmurous a.
- Attended with murmurs; exciting murmurs or complaint; murmuring. [Cf. L. murmuriosus, OF. murmuros.]
- ivied a.
- Overgrown with ivy. [From Ivy.]
- seaward a.
- Directed or situated toward the sea. Donne.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Late Summer is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, 1908-1919, Project Gutenberg ebook #51575; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Drinkwater, Late Summer, in Poems, 1908-1919 (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51575, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drinkwater-poems/late-summer.html, id L23087.
Form and metre
Late Summer is 16 lines in 2 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 97%).
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 ABABCDCD delayethA · boonB · stayethA · noonB · dreamingC · tonesD · gleamingC · stonesD
- 2 -A-ABCBC willow · brookA · mellow · bookA · narrowB · prideC · arrowB · tideC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Though summer long delayeth | 7 | ·/˘·˘/˘ |
| Her blue and golden boon, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Yet now at length she stayeth | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Her wings above the noon; | 6 | ······ |
| She sets the waters dreaming | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| To murmurous leafy tones, | 7 | ·/˘˘/˘· |
| The weeded waters gleaming | 7 | ·/˘/˘/˘ |
| Above the stepping-stones. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Where fern and ivied willow | 7 | ···/˘/· |
| Lean o’er the seaward brook, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| I read a volume mellow-- | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| A poet’s fairy-book; | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| The seaward brook is narrow, | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| The hazel spans its pride, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And like a painted arrow | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| The king-bird keeps the tide. | 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.