Morning
The mist has left the greening plain,The dew-drops shine like fairy rain,The coquette rose awakes againHer lovely self adorning.The Wind is hiding in the trees,A sighing, soothing, laughing tease,Until the rose says "Kiss me, please,"'Tis morning, 'tis morning.
With staff in hand and careless-free,The wanderer fares right jauntily,For towns and houses are, thinks he,For scorning, for scorning.My soul is swift upon the wing,And in its deeps a song I bring;Come, Love, and we together sing,"'Tis morning, 'tis morning."
Words in this poem
- greening n.
- A greenish apple, of several varieties, among which the Rhode Island greening is the best known for its fine-grained acid flesh and its excellent keeping quality.
- coquette n.
- A vain, trifling woman, who endeavors to attract admiration from a desire to grafity vanity; a flirt; -- formerly sometimes applied also to men. [F., fr. coquet, coquette, coquettish, orig., cocklike, strutting like a cock, fr. coq a cock. Cf. Cock, Cocket, Cocky, Cockade.]
- jauntily adv.
- In a jaunty manner.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Morning 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, in The Complete Poems (1893–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18338, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dunbar-poems/morning.html, id L00838.
Form and metre
Morning is 16 lines in 2 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 84% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.6 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 7% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 AAABCCCB plainA · rainA · againA · adorningB · treesC · teaseC · pleaseC · morningB
- 2 A-ABCCCB freeA · jauntily · heA · scorningB · wingC · bringC · singC · morningB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The mist has left the greening plain, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The dew-drops shine like fairy rain, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The coquette rose awakes again | 8 | ·˘/·˘/˘/ |
| Her lovely self adorning. | 7 | ·/˘·˘/˘ |
| The Wind is hiding in the trees, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| A sighing, soothing, laughing tease, | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| Until the rose says "Kiss me, please," | 8 | ········ |
| 'Tis morning, 'tis morning. | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| With staff in hand and careless-free, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The wanderer fares right jauntily, | 9 | ·/˘˘··/˘˘ |
| For towns and houses are, thinks he, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| For scorning, for scorning. | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| My soul is swift upon the wing, | 8 | ········ |
| And in its deeps a song I bring; | 8 | ········ |
| Come, Love, and we together sing, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| "'Tis morning, 'tis morning." | 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.