Monadnoc from Afar
Dark flower of Cheshire garden,Red evening duly dyesThy sombre head with rosy huesTo fix far-gazing eyes.Well the Planter knew how stronglyWorks thy form on human thought;I muse what secret purpose had heTo draw all fancies to this spot.
Words in this poem
- sombre n.
- Gloom; obscurity; duskiness; somberness.
- planter n.
- One who, or that which, plants or sows; as, a planterof corn; a machine planter.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Monadnoc from Afar 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, Monadnoc from Afar, in Poems (1847), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12843, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/emerson-poems/monadnoc-from-afar.html, id L07559.
Form and metre
Monadnoc from Afar is 8 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.5 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 50% 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 -A-A---- garden · dyesA · hues · eyesA · strongly · thought · he · spot
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Dark flower of Cheshire garden, | 8 | ·/˘·/˘/˘ |
| Red evening duly dyes | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Thy sombre head with rosy hues | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| To fix far-gazing eyes. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Well the Planter knew how strongly | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Works thy form on human thought; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| I muse what secret purpose had he | 9 | ···/˘/˘·· |
| To draw all fancies to this spot. | 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.