Birds
Darlings of children and of bard,Perfect kinds by vice unmarred,All of worth and beauty setGems in Nature's cabinet;These the fables she esteemsReality most like to dreams.Welcome back, you little nations,Far-travelled in the south plantations;Bring your music and rhythmic flight,Your colors for our eyes' delight:Freely nestle in our roof,Weave your chamber weatherproof;And your enchanting manners bringAnd your autumnal gathering.Exchange in conclave generalGreetings kind to each and all,Conscious each of duty doneAnd unstainèd as the sun.
Words in this poem
- rhythmic a.
- Pertaining to, or of the nature of, rhythm DAy and night I worked my rhythmic thought. Mrs. Browning. [Gr. rhythmicus, F. rhythmique.]
- nestle v. i.
- To make and occupy a nest; to nest. [AS. nestlian.]
- weatherproof a.
- Proof against rough weather.
- conclave n.
- The set of apartments within which the cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church are continuously secluded while engaged in choosing a pope. [F., fr. L. conclave a room that may locked up; con- + clavis key. See Clavicle.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Birds is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems Household Edition, Project Gutenberg ebook #12843; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Birds, in Poems (1847), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12843, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/emerson-poems/birds.html, id L07546.
Form and metre
Birds is 18 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%). 87% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.6 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 28% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in trochaic 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 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHII bardA · unmarredA · setB · cabinetB · esteemsC · dreamsC · nationsD · plantationsD · flightE · delightE · roofF · weatherproofF · bringG · gatheringG · generalH · allH · doneI · sunI
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Darlings of children and of bard, | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| Perfect kinds by vice unmarred, | 8 | /······˘ |
| All of worth and beauty set | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Gems in Nature's cabinet; | 7 | ··/˘/˘˘ |
| These the fables she esteems | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| Reality most like to dreams. | 8 | ˘/˘˘···· |
| Welcome back, you little nations, | 8 | /˘··/˘/˘ |
| Far-travelled in the south plantations; | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| Bring your music and rhythmic flight, | 8 | ··/˘·/˘· |
| Your colors for our eyes' delight: | 8 | ·/˘·/·˘/ |
| Freely nestle in our roof, | 8 | /˘/˘·/˘· |
| Weave your chamber weatherproof; | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| And your enchanting manners bring | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘· |
| And your autumnal gathering. | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘˘ |
| Exchange in conclave general | 8 | ˘/·/·/˘˘ |
| Greetings kind to each and all, | 7 | /˘····· |
| Conscious each of duty done | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| And unstainèd as the sun. | 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.