In an English Garden
In this old garden, fair, I walk to-dayHeart-charmed with all the beauty of the scene:The rich, luxuriant grasses' cooling green,The wall's environ, ivy-decked and gray,The waving branches with the wind at play,The slight and tremulous blooms that show between,Sweet all: and yet my yearning heart doth leanToward Love's Egyptian fleshpots far away.
Beside the wall, the slim Laburnum growsAnd flings its golden flow'rs to every breeze.But e'en among such soothing sights as these,I pant and nurse my soul-devouring woes.Of all the longings that our hearts wot of,There is no hunger like the want of love!
Words in this poem
- cooling a.
- Adapted to cool and refresh; allaying heat.
- environ v. t.
- To surround; to encompass; to encircle; to hem in; to be round about; to involve or envelop. [F. environner, fr. environ about, thereabout; pref. en- (L. in) + OF. viron circle, circuit, fr. OF. & F. virer to turn, LL. virare to turn up and down, topsy-t]
- laburnum n.
- A small leguminous tree (Cytisus Laburnum), native of the Alps. [L.]
- pant v. i.
- To breathe quickly or in a labored manner, as after exertion or from eagerness or excitement; to respire with heaving of the breast; to gasp. [Cf. F. panteler to gasp for breath, OF. panteisier to be breathless, F. pantois out of breath; perh. akin to E. phantom, the verb prob. orig. meaning, to have t]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
In an English Garden is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar, Project Gutenberg ebook #18338; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Paul Laurence Dunbar, In an English Garden, in The Complete Poems (1893–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18338, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dunbar-poems/in-an-english-garden.html, id L00634.
Form and metre
In an English Garden is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 21% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ABBAABBA dayA · sceneB · greenB · grayA · playA · betweenB · leanB · awayA
- 2 ABBACC growsA · breezeB · theseB · woesA · ofC · loveC
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| In this old garden, fair, I walk to-day | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Heart-charmed with all the beauty of the scene: | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| The rich, luxuriant grasses' cooling green, | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘/˘· |
| The wall's environ, ivy-decked and gray, | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| The waving branches with the wind at play, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| The slight and tremulous blooms that show between, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Sweet all: and yet my yearning heart doth lean | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Toward Love's Egyptian fleshpots far away. | 11 | ···˘/˘···˘/ |
| Beside the wall, the slim Laburnum grows | 10 | ˘/····˘/˘· |
| And flings its golden flow'rs to every breeze. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| But e'en among such soothing sights as these, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| I pant and nurse my soul-devouring woes. | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Of all the longings that our hearts wot of, | 10 | ···/˘·/··· |
| There is no hunger like the want of love! | 10 | ···/˘····· |
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.