The Lover’s Day
Gorse-plains that flower their gold into the streamsBeneath the opal blossoms of the sky;Sea-floods that weave their blue and purple seams;White sails that lift the billows as they fly:Not these in their abounding rapture vieWith love’s diviner dreams.
Those lovers tire not when the sun is pale;No statelier awning than a bristled treeWith branches cedared by the salten gale,Stretched back, as if with wings that cannot flee:They linger, and the sun departs by sea;He spreads his crimson sail.
They watch him as he piles his busy deckWith golden treasure; as his sail expands;They see him sink; they gaze upon the wreckThrough the still twilight of the silvery sands.One cloud is left to the deserted lands:The blue-set moon’s cold fleck.
They linger though the pageant hath gone by,The opal cloud is lit o’er sea and plain;The moon is full of one day’s memory,And tells the tale of Nature o’er again,Its glory mingled in the soul’s refrainUnder that lover’s sky.
Words in this poem
- awning n.
- A rooflike cover, usually of canvas, extended over or before any place as a shelter from the sun, rain, or wind. [Origin uncertain: cf. F. auvent awing, or Pers. awan, awang, anything suspended, or LG. havening a place sheltered from wind and weather, E. haven.]
- cedared a.
- Covered, or furnished with, cedars.
- fleck n.
- A flake; also, a lock, as of wool. J. Martin.
- pageant n.
- A theatrical exhibition; a spectacle. [OE. pagent, pagen, originally, a movable scaffold or stage, hence, what was exhibited on it, fr. LL. pagina, akin to pangere to fasten; cf. L. pagina page, leaf]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Lover’s Day is in the public domain. This text is taken from The poems of Thomas Gordon Hake, Project Gutenberg ebook #78947; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Thomas Gordon Hake, The Lover’s Day, in Poems (1870), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #78947, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hake-poems/the-lover-s-day.html, id L23602.
Form and metre
The Lover’s Day is 24 lines in 4 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABBA, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ABABBA streamsA · skyB · seamsA · flyB · vieB · dreamsA
- 2 ABABBA paleA · treeB · galeA · fleeB · seaB · sailA
- 3 ABABBA deckA · expandsB · wreckA · sandsB · landsB · fleckA
- 4 AB-BBA byA · plainB · memory · againB · refrainB · skyA
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Gorse-plains that flower their gold into the streams | 10 | ···/······ |
| Beneath the opal blossoms of the sky; | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Sea-floods that weave their blue and purple seams; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| White sails that lift the billows as they fly: | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Not these in their abounding rapture vie | 10 | ····˘/˘/˘· |
| With love’s diviner dreams. | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| Those lovers tire not when the sun is pale; | 10 | ·/˘/······ |
| No statelier awning than a bristled tree | 11 | ····/˘··/˘· |
| With branches cedared by the salten gale, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Stretched back, as if with wings that cannot flee: | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| They linger, and the sun departs by sea; | 10 | ·/˘···˘/·· |
| He spreads his crimson sail. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| They watch him as he piles his busy deck | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| With golden treasure; as his sail expands; | 10 | ·/˘/˘···˘/ |
| They see him sink; they gaze upon the wreck | 10 | ·········· |
| Through the still twilight of the silvery sands. | 10 | ···/···/˘· |
| One cloud is left to the deserted lands: | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| The blue-set moon’s cold fleck. | 6 | ······ |
| They linger though the pageant hath gone by, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| The opal cloud is lit o’er sea and plain; | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| The moon is full of one day’s memory, | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| And tells the tale of Nature o’er again, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Its glory mingled in the soul’s refrain | 10 | ·/˘/˘···˘/ |
| Under that lover’s sky. | 6 | ···/˘· |
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.