Marigolds
With a fork drive Nature out,She will ever yet return;Hedge the flowerbed all about,Pull or stab or cut or burn,She will ever yet return.
Look: the constant marigoldSprings again from hidden roots.Baffled gardener, you beholdNew beginnings and new shootsSpring again from hidden roots.Pull or stab or cut or burn,They will ever yet return.
Gardener, cursing at the weed,Ere you curse it further, say:Who but you planted the seedIn my fertile heart, one day?Ere you curse me further, say!New beginnings and new shootsString again from hidden rootsPull or stab or cut or burn,Love must ever yet return.
Words in this poem
- gardener n.
- One who makes and tends a garden; a horticulturist.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Marigolds is in the public domain. This text is taken from Fairies and Fusiliers, Project Gutenberg ebook #10122; 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 Graves, Marigolds, in Fairies and Fusiliers (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10122, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/graves-fairies/marigolds.html, id L02439.
Form and metre
Marigolds is 21 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 57% of the lines. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.1 syllables. 29% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in trochaic 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 ABABB outA · returnB · aboutA · burnB · returnB
- 2 ABABBCC marigoldA · rootsB · beholdA · shootsB · rootsB · burnC · returnC
- 3 ABABBCCDD weedA · sayB · seedA · dayB · sayB · shootsC · rootsC · burnD · returnD
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| With a fork drive Nature out, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| She will ever yet return; | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| Hedge the flowerbed all about, | 8 | ····˘··· |
| Pull or stab or cut or burn, | 7 | ······· |
| She will ever yet return. | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| Look: the constant marigold | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Springs again from hidden roots. | 7 | ·˘/·/˘· |
| Baffled gardener, you behold | 8 | /˘/˘˘·˘/ |
| New beginnings and new shoots | 7 | ·˘/˘··· |
| Spring again from hidden roots. | 7 | ·˘/·/˘· |
| Pull or stab or cut or burn, | 7 | ······· |
| They will ever yet return. | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| Gardener, cursing at the weed, | 8 | /˘˘/˘··· |
| Ere you curse it further, say: | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Who but you planted the seed | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| In my fertile heart, one day? | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Ere you curse me further, say! | 7 | ····/˘· |
| New beginnings and new shoots | 7 | ·˘/˘··· |
| String again from hidden roots | 7 | ·˘/·/˘· |
| Pull or stab or cut or burn, | 7 | ······· |
| Love must ever yet return. | 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.