Jessica Dances
When Joy and Molly on the lawnDanced bare of foot like spirits of dawnJessica watched in wondermentUntil delight would not be pent,And shoe and sock she cast in mirthAnd felt her naked toes touch earth.Swiftly the fresh green joy shot inThrough the fresh young rosy skin,And in a golden glee the childWent dancing innocently-wildUp and down and round and roundLike daisies covering the ground,Called sunward by the age-long spellNo ages can destroyOf youth that never sighed or sinned,--While elfin Molly and fairy JoyDanced on like lilies in a dellOr harebells in the wind.
Words in this poem
- molly n.
- A pet or colloquial name for Mary. Molly cottontail. (Zoöl.) See Cottontail.
- wonderment n.
- Surprise; astonishment; a wonderful appearance; a wonder.
- pent p. p.
- Penned or shut up; confined; -- often with up. [From Pen, v. t.]
- sock n.
- A plowshare. Edin. Encyc. [F. soc, LL. soccus, perhaps of Celtic origin.]
- glee n.
- Music; minstrelsy; entertainment.
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- sunward adv.
- Toward the sun.
- elfin a.
- Relating to elves.
- dell n.
- A small, retired valley; a ravine. [AS. del, akin to E. dale; cf. D. delle, del, low ground. See Dale.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Jessica Dances is in the public domain. This text is taken from Sonnets and Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #56244; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Eleanor Farjeon, Jessica Dances, in Sonnets and Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56244, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/farjeon-sonnets-poems/jessica-dances.html, id L21969.
Form and metre
Jessica Dances is 18 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 67% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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 AABBCCDDEEFFGHIHGI lawnA · dawnA · wondermentB · pentB · mirthC · earthC · inD · skinD · childE · wildE · roundF · groundF · spellG · destroyH · sinnedI · joyH · dellG · windI
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 |
|---|---|---|
| When Joy and Molly on the lawn | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Danced bare of foot like spirits of dawn | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| Jessica watched in wonderment | 8 | /˘˘··/˘˘ |
| Until delight would not be pent, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| And shoe and sock she cast in mirth | 8 | ········ |
| And felt her naked toes touch earth. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Swiftly the fresh green joy shot in | 8 | /˘······ |
| Through the fresh young rosy skin, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| And in a golden glee the child | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Went dancing innocently-wild | 8 | ·/˘/˘˘˘· |
| Up and down and round and round | 7 | ······· |
| Like daisies covering the ground, | 8 | ·/˘/˘˘·· |
| Called sunward by the age-long spell | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| No ages can destroy | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| Of youth that never sighed or sinned,-- | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| While elfin Molly and fairy Joy | 9 | ·/˘/˘·/˘· |
| Danced on like lilies in a dell | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Or harebells in the wind. | 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.