Una
Roving, roving, as it seems,Una lights my clouded dreams;Still for journeys she is dressed;We wander far by east and west.
In the homestead, homely thought,At my work I ramble not;If from home chance draw me wide,Half-seen Una sits beside.
In my house and garden-plot,Though beloved, I miss her not;But one I seek in foreign places,One face explore in foreign faces.
At home a deeper thought may lightThe inward sky with chrysolite,And I greet from far the ray,Aurora of a dearer day.
But if upon the seas I sail,Or trundle on the glowing rail,I am but a thought of hers,Loveliest of travellers.
So the gentle poet's nameTo foreign parts is blown by fame,Seek him in his native town,He is hidden and unknown.
Words in this poem
- homely a.
- Belonging to, or having the characteristics of, home; domestic; familiar; intimate. [From Home, n.]
- explore v. t.
- To seek for or after; to strive to attain by search; to look wisely and carefully for. [L. explorare to explore; ex out+plorare to cry out aloud,prob. orig., to cause to flow; perh. akin to E. flow: cf. F. explorer.]
- aurora n.
- The rising light of the morning; the dawn of day; the redness of the sky just before the sun rises. [L. aurora, for ausosa, akin to Gr. ushas, and E. east.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Una 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, Una, in Poems (1847), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12843, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/emerson-poems/una.html, id L07449.
Form and metre
Una is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 3 of its 6 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.5 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 8% 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 AABB seemsA · dreamsA · dressedB · westB
- 2 --AA thought · not · wideA · besideA
- 3 AABB plotA · notA · placesB · facesB
- 4 AABB lightA · chrysoliteA · rayB · dayB
- 5 AA-- sailA · railA · hers · travellers
- 6 AA-- nameA · fameA · town · unknown
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Roving, roving, as it seems, | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| Una lights my clouded dreams; | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Still for journeys she is dressed; | 8 | ··/˘···˘ |
| We wander far by east and west. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| In the homestead, homely thought, | 7 | ··/·/˘· |
| At my work I ramble not; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| If from home chance draw me wide, | 7 | ······· |
| Half-seen Una sits beside. | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| In my house and garden-plot, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Though beloved, I miss her not; | 8 | ·˘/˘···· |
| But one I seek in foreign places, | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| One face explore in foreign faces. | 9 | ··˘/·/˘/˘ |
| At home a deeper thought may light | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The inward sky with chrysolite, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘˘ |
| And I greet from far the ray, | 7 | ······· |
| Aurora of a dearer day. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| But if upon the seas I sail, | 8 | ········ |
| Or trundle on the glowing rail, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| I am but a thought of hers, | 7 | ······· |
| Loveliest of travellers. | 7 | ····/˘˘ |
| So the gentle poet's name | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| To foreign parts is blown by fame, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Seek him in his native town, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| He is hidden and unknown. | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
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.