Rosemary
'E'er August be turned to September,Nor Summer to Autumn as yet,My darling, you Autumn rememberWhat Summer so sure to forget.
'Though age may extinguish the emberThat glowed in our hearts when we met,Remember, my love, to remember,And I will forget to forget.
'Who knows but the winds of DecemberMay drift us asunder, my pet;And if I forget to remember,Remember, my sweet, to forget!
'My beauty will fade, as the posyYou gave me that night on the stairs;My lips will not always be rosy,My head cannot give itself 'airs.
'Alas! as we both become older,Existence draws nigh to a close;So, until I've forgotten your shoulder,You must not remember my nose.
'Our days were not all sunny weather;Even so we have nought to regret,--Ah! let us remember together,Until we forget to forget!'
Words in this poem
- ember n.
- A lighted coal, smoldering amid ashes; -- used chiefly in the plural, to signify mingled coals and ashes; the smoldering remains of a fire. [OE. emmeres, emeres, AS. ; akin to Icel. eimyrja, Dan. emmer, MHG. eimere; cf. Icel. eimr vapor, smoke.]
- posy n.
- A brief poetical sentiment; hence, any brief sentiment, motto, or legend; especially, one inscribed on a ring. [Contr. fr. poesy.]
- sunny a.
- Of or pertaining to the sun; proceeding from, or resembling the sun; hence, shining; bright; brilliant; radiant.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Rosemary is in the public domain. This text is taken from Verse and Worse, Project Gutenberg ebook #36702; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Harry Graham, Rosemary, in Verse and Worse (1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #36702, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/graham-verse-and-worse/rosemary.html, id L23355.
Form and metre
Rosemary is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is anapaestic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
See other poems in anapaestic trimeter.
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 ABAB septemberA · yetB · rememberA · forgetB
- 2 ABAB emberA · metB · rememberA · forgetB
- 3 ABAB decemberA · petB · rememberA · forgetB
- 4 ABAB posyA · stairsB · rosyA · airsB
- 5 ABAB olderA · closeB · shoulderA · noseB
- 6 ABAB weatherA · regretB · togetherA · forgetB
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 anapaestic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| 'E'er August be turned to September, | 9 | ·/˘···˘/˘ |
| Nor Summer to Autumn as yet, | 8 | ·/˘·/˘·· |
| My darling, you Autumn remember | 9 | ·/˘·/˘˘/˘ |
| What Summer so sure to forget. | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| 'Though age may extinguish the ember | 9 | ···˘/˘·/˘ |
| That glowed in our hearts when we met, | 8 | ···/···· |
| Remember, my love, to remember, | 9 | ˘/˘···˘/˘ |
| And I will forget to forget. | 8 | ···˘/·˘/ |
| 'Who knows but the winds of December | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| May drift us asunder, my pet; | 8 | ···˘/˘·· |
| And if I forget to remember, | 9 | ···˘/·˘/˘ |
| Remember, my sweet, to forget! | 8 | ˘/˘···˘/ |
| 'My beauty will fade, as the posy | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| You gave me that night on the stairs; | 8 | ········ |
| My lips will not always be rosy, | 9 | ····/··/˘ |
| My head cannot give itself 'airs. | 8 | ··/˘·˘/· |
| 'Alas! as we both become older, | 9 | ˘/···˘//˘ |
| Existence draws nigh to a close; | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
| So, until I've forgotten your shoulder, | 10 | ····˘/˘·/˘ |
| You must not remember my nose. | 8 | ···˘/˘·· |
| 'Our days were not all sunny weather; | 9 | /····/˘/˘ |
| Even so we have nought to regret,-- | 8 | /·····˘/ |
| Ah! let us remember together, | 9 | ···˘/˘˘/˘ |
| Until we forget to forget!' | 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.