A Fragment
THE clustering grapes of purple vineAre crushed to make the crimson wine.
The poppies in the grasses deepAre crushed to brew the draught of sleep.
The roses, when their glories bloomAre crushed to yield their soul’s perfume.
And hearts, perchance of these the least,Are crushed for nectar at Love’s feast!
Words in this poem
- brew v. t.
- To boil or seethe; to cook. [OE. brewen, AS. breówan; akin to D. brouwen, OHG. priuwan, MHG. briuwen, br, G. brauen, Icel. brugga, Sw. brygga, Dan. brygge, and perh. to L. defrutum must boi]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Fragment is in the public domain. This text is taken from Songs of Three Counties, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #50591; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Radclyffe Hall, A Fragment, in Songs of Three Counties, and Other Poems (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #50591, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hall-three-counties/a-fragment.html, id L22704.
Form and metre
A Fragment is 8 lines in 4 stanzas of 2 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%).
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 AA vineA · wineA
- 2 AA deepA · sleepA
- 3 AA bloomA · perfumeA
- 4 AA leastA · feastA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| THE clustering grapes of purple vine | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Are crushed to make the crimson wine. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The poppies in the grasses deep | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Are crushed to brew the draught of sleep. | 8 | ········ |
| The roses, when their glories bloom | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Are crushed to yield their soul’s perfume. | 8 | ······˘/ |
| And hearts, perchance of these the least, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Are crushed for nectar at Love’s feast! | 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.