Roses
Oh, wind of the spring-time, oh, free wind of May,When blossoms and bird-song are rife;Oh, joy for the season, and joy for the day,That gave me the roses of life, of life,That gave me the roses of life.
Oh, wind of the summer, sing loud in the night,When flutters my heart like a dove;One came from thy kingdom, thy realm of delight,And gave me the roses of love, of love,And gave me the roses of love.
Oh, wind of the winter, sigh low in thy grief,I hear thy compassionate breath;I wither, I fall, like the autumn-kissed leaf,He gave me the roses of death, of death,He gave me the roses of death.
Words in this poem
- rife a.
- Prevailing; prevalent; abounding. [AS. rif abundant, or Icel. rifr munificent; akin to OD. riff, rijve, abundant.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Roses 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, Roses, in The Complete Poems (1893–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18338, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dunbar-poems/roses.html, id L00789.
Form and metre
Roses is 15 lines in 3 stanzas of 5 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABABB. 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.6 syllables.
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 ABABB mayA · rifeB · dayA · lifeB · lifeB
- 2 ABABB nightA · doveB · delightA · loveB · loveB
- 3 ABABB griefA · breathB · leafA · deathB · deathB
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Oh, wind of the spring-time, oh, free wind of May, | 11 | ··········· |
| When blossoms and bird-song are rife; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Oh, joy for the season, and joy for the day, | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| That gave me the roses of life, of life, | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| That gave me the roses of life. | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Oh, wind of the summer, sing loud in the night, | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| When flutters my heart like a dove; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| One came from thy kingdom, thy realm of delight, | 11 | ····/˘···˘/ |
| And gave me the roses of love, of love, | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| And gave me the roses of love. | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Oh, wind of the winter, sigh low in thy grief, | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| I hear thy compassionate breath; | 8 | ···˘/˘˘· |
| I wither, I fall, like the autumn-kissed leaf, | 11 | ·/˘····/˘·· |
| He gave me the roses of death, of death, | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| He gave me the roses of death. | 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.