Morning Song of Love
Darling, my darling, my heart is on the wing,It flies to thee this morning like a bird,Like happy birds in springtime my spirits soar and sing,The same sweet song thine ears have often heard.
The sun is in my window, the shadow on the lea,The wind is moving in the branches green,And all my life, my darling, is turning unto thee,And kneeling at thy feet, my own, my queen.
The golden bells are ringing across the distant hill,Their merry peals come to me soft and clear,But in my heart's deep chapel all incense-filled and stillA sweeter bell is sounding for thee, dear.
The bell of love invites thee to come and seek the shrineWhose altar is erected unto thee,The offerings, the sacrifice, the prayers, the chants are thine,And I, my love, thy humble priest will be.
Words in this poem
- springtime n.
- The season of spring; springtide.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Morning Song of Love 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, Morning Song of Love, in The Complete Poems (1893–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18338, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dunbar-poems/morning-song-of-love.html, id L00760.
Form and metre
Morning Song of Love is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 83% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 11.4 syllables. 12% 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 ABAB wingA · birdB · singA · heardB
- 2 ABAB leaA · greenB · theeA · queenB
- 3 ABAB hillA · clearB · stillA · dearB
- 4 ABAB shrineA · theeB · thineA · beB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Darling, my darling, my heart is on the wing, | 11 | /˘·/˘······ |
| It flies to thee this morning like a bird, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Like happy birds in springtime my spirits soar and sing, | 13 | ·/˘··/··/˘··· |
| The same sweet song thine ears have often heard. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The sun is in my window, the shadow on the lea, | 13 | ·····/˘·/···· |
| The wind is moving in the branches green, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And all my life, my darling, is turning unto thee, | 13 | ·····/˘·/˘··· |
| And kneeling at thy feet, my own, my queen. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| The golden bells are ringing across the distant hill, | 13 | ·/˘··/˘˘/·/˘· |
| Their merry peals come to me soft and clear, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| But in my heart's deep chapel all incense-filled and still | 13 | ·····/˘·˘/··· |
| A sweeter bell is sounding for thee, dear. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| The bell of love invites thee to come and seek the shrine | 13 | ····˘/······· |
| Whose altar is erected unto thee, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘··· |
| The offerings, the sacrifice, the prayers, the chants are thine, | 13 | ·/˘·/˘······· |
| And I, my love, thy humble priest will be. | 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.