May Garden
A shower of green gems on my apple-treeThis first morning of MayHas fallen out of the night, to beHerald of holiday--Bright gems of green that, fallen there,Seem fixed and glowing on the air.
Until a flutter of blackbird wingsShakes and makes the boughs alive,And the gems are now no frozen things,But apple-green buds to thriveOn sap of my May garden, how wellThe green September globes will tell.
Also my pear-tree has its buds,But they are silver yellow,Like autumn meadows when the floodsAre silver under willow,And here shall long and shapely pearsBe gathered while the autumn wears.
And there are sixty daffodilsBeneath my wall....And jealousy it is that killsThis world when allThe spring’s behaviour here is spentTo make the world magnificent.
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- shapely a.
- Well-formed; having a regular shape; comely; symmetrical. T.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
May Garden 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, May Garden, in Poems, 1908-1919 (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51575, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drinkwater-poems/may-garden.html, id L23114.
Form and metre
May Garden is 24 lines in 4 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABCC, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. 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 ABABCC treeA · mayB · beA · holidayB · thereC · airC
- 2 ABABCC wingsA · aliveB · thingsA · thriveB · wellC · tellC
- 3 A-A-BB budsA · yellow · floodsA · willow · pearsB · wearsB
- 4 ABABCC daffodilsA · wallB · killsA · allB · spentC · magnificentC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A shower of green gems on my apple-tree | 10 | ·/·····/˘· |
| This first morning of May | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| Has fallen out of the night, to be | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| Herald of holiday-- | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| Bright gems of green that, fallen there, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Seem fixed and glowing on the air. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Until a flutter of blackbird wings | 9 | ···/˘·/˘· |
| Shakes and makes the boughs alive, | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| And the gems are now no frozen things, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| But apple-green buds to thrive | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| On sap of my May garden, how well | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| The green September globes will tell. | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| Also my pear-tree has its buds, | 8 | /˘······ |
| But they are silver yellow, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Like autumn meadows when the floods | 8 | ·/˘/···· |
| Are silver under willow, | 7 | ·/˘··/· |
| And here shall long and shapely pears | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Be gathered while the autumn wears. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And there are sixty daffodils | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Beneath my wall.... | 4 | ···· |
| And jealousy it is that kills | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| This world when all | 4 | ···· |
| The spring’s behaviour here is spent | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| To make the world magnificent. | 8 | ····˘/˘˘ |
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.