Rose Pogonias
A SATURATED meadow,Sun-shaped and jewel-small,A circle scarcely widerThan the trees around were tall;Where winds were quite excluded,And the air was stifling sweetWith the breath of many flowers,--A temple of the heat.There we bowed us in the burning,As the sun's right worship is,To pick where none could miss themA thousand orchises;For though the grass was scattered,Yet every second spearSeemed tipped with wings of color,That tinged the atmosphere.We raised a simple prayerBefore we left the spot,That in the general mowingThat place might be forgot;Or if not all so favoured,Obtain such grace of hours,That none should mow the grass thereWhile so confused with flowers.
Words in this poem
- favoured a.
- Countenanced; aided; regarded with kidness; as, a favored friend.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Rose Pogonias is in the public domain. This text is taken from A Boy's Will, Project Gutenberg ebook #3021; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Robert Frost, Rose Pogonias, in A Boy's Will (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3021, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/frost-boys-will/rose-pogonias.html, id L04629.
Form and metre
Rose Pogonias is 24 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 88% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.1 syllables. 10 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 29% 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-BCB-C---D-DEF-F-CEC meadow · smallA · wider · tallA · excluded · sweetB · flowersC · heatB · burning · isC · them · orchises · scattered · spearD · color · atmosphereD · prayerE · spotF · mowing · forgotF · favoured · hoursC · thereE · flowersC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A SATURATED meadow, | 7 | ·/˘·˘/· |
| Sun-shaped and jewel-small, | 7 | ··˘·/˘· |
| A circle scarcely wider | 7 | ·/˘/˘/˘ |
| Than the trees around were tall; | 7 | ······· |
| Where winds were quite excluded, | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| And the air was stifling sweet | 7 | ····/˘· |
| With the breath of many flowers,-- | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| A temple of the heat. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| There we bowed us in the burning, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| As the sun's right worship is, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| To pick where none could miss them | 7 | ······· |
| A thousand orchises; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| For though the grass was scattered, | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| Yet every second spear | 7 | ·/˘˘/˘· |
| Seemed tipped with wings of color, | 8 | ·˘····/˘ |
| That tinged the atmosphere. | 7 | ··˘·/˘· |
| We raised a simple prayer | 7 | ··˘·/˘· |
| Before we left the spot, | 6 | ······ |
| That in the general mowing | 8 | ···/˘˘/˘ |
| That place might be forgot; | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Or if not all so favoured, | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| Obtain such grace of hours, | 7 | ˘/···/˘ |
| That none should mow the grass there | 7 | ······· |
| While so confused with flowers. | 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.