Holidays
From fall to spring, the russet acorn,Fruit beloved of maid and boy,Lent itself beneath the forest,To be the children's toy.
Pluck it now! In vain,--thou canst not;Its root has pierced yon shady mound;Toy no longer--it has duties;It is anchored in the ground.
Year by year the rose-lipped maiden,Playfellow of young and old,Was frolic sunshine, dear to all men,More dear to one than mines of gold.
Whither went the lovely hoyden?Disappeared in blessed wife;Servant to a wooden cradle,Living in a baby's life.
Still thou playest;--short vacationFate grants each to stand aside;Now must thou be man and artist,--'T is the turning of the tide.
Words in this poem
- anchored a.
- Held by an anchor; at anchor; held safely; as, an anchored bark; also, shaped like an anchor; forked; as, an anchored tongue.
- playfellow n.
- A companion in amusements or sports; a playmate.
- sunshine n.
- The light of the sun, or the place where it shines; the direct rays of the sun, the place where they fall, or the warmth and light which they give.
- whither adv.
- To what place; -- used interrogatively; as, whither goest thou [OE. whider. AS. hwider; akin to E. where, who; cf. Goth. hvadre whither. See Who, and cf. Hither, Thither.]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- vacation n.
- The act of vacating; a making void or of no force; as, the vacation of an office or a charter. [F., fr. L. vacatio a being free from a duty, service, etc., fr. vacare. See Vacate.]
- artist n.
- One who practices some mechanic art or craft; an artisan. [F. artiste, LL. artista, fr. L. ars. See Art, n., and cf. Artiste.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Holidays 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, Holidays, in Poems (1847), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12843, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/emerson-poems/holidays.html, id L07431.
Form and metre
Holidays is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.8 syllables. 8 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 5% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See 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 -A-A acorn · boyA · forest · toyA
- 2 -A-A not · moundA · duties · groundA
- 3 ABAB maidenA · oldB · menA · goldB
- 4 -A-A hoyden · wifeA · cradle · lifeA
- 5 -A-A vacation · asideA · artist · tideA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| From fall to spring, the russet acorn, | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| Fruit beloved of maid and boy, | 8 | ·˘/˘···· |
| Lent itself beneath the forest, | 8 | ·˘/···/˘ |
| To be the children's toy. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Pluck it now! In vain,--thou canst not; | 8 | ········ |
| Its root has pierced yon shady mound; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Toy no longer--it has duties; | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| It is anchored in the ground. | 8 | ··/˘˘··· |
| Year by year the rose-lipped maiden, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Playfellow of young and old, | 6 | /˘···· |
| Was frolic sunshine, dear to all men, | 9 | ·/˘/····· |
| More dear to one than mines of gold. | 8 | ········ |
| Whither went the lovely hoyden? | 8 | /˘··/˘/˘ |
| Disappeared in blessed wife; | 8 | ·˘/˘··˘· |
| Servant to a wooden cradle, | 8 | /˘··/˘/˘ |
| Living in a baby's life. | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Still thou playest;--short vacation | 8 | ··/˘·˘/˘ |
| Fate grants each to stand aside; | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Now must thou be man and artist,-- | 8 | ······/˘ |
| 'T is the turning of the tide. | 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.