Dawn Among the Olive Groves
ALONG the hills the olives grow,And almonds bloom in early Spring,And many are the streams that flow,And countless are the birds that sing;The air is cool with distant snow,And musical with bells that ring.
Beneath my feet the road winds downIn deepening shadow, far awayTo where a little peaceful townLies sleeping by the quiet bay;A distant sail, now white, now brown,Shows phantomlike against the day.
While gradually the Eastern skiesGrow flushed and bright, the late stars flee,And eager clouds appear, and riseAbove the waves expectantly;Till lo! before my wondering eyes,The great sun steps from out the sea!
Words in this poem
- countless a.
- Incapable of being counted; not ascertainable; innumerable.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Dawn Among the Olive Groves 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, Dawn Among the Olive Groves, in Songs of Three Counties, and Other Poems (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #50591, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hall-three-counties/dawn-among-the-olive-groves.html, id L22689.
Form and metre
Dawn Among the Olive Groves is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABAB, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
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 ABABAB growA · springB · flowA · singB · snowA · ringB
- 2 ABABAB downA · awayB · townA · bayB · brownA · dayB
- 3 ABA-AB skiesA · fleeB · riseA · expectantly · eyesA · seaB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| ALONG the hills the olives grow, | 8 | ˘/···/˘· |
| And almonds bloom in early Spring, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And many are the streams that flow, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And countless are the birds that sing; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The air is cool with distant snow, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And musical with bells that ring. | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| Beneath my feet the road winds down | 8 | ········ |
| In deepening shadow, far away | 8 | ·/˘/··˘/ |
| To where a little peaceful town | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Lies sleeping by the quiet bay; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| A distant sail, now white, now brown, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Shows phantomlike against the day. | 8 | ········ |
| While gradually the Eastern skies | 8 | ·/˘˘·/˘· |
| Grow flushed and bright, the late stars flee, | 8 | ········ |
| And eager clouds appear, and rise | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| Above the waves expectantly; | 8 | ········ |
| Till lo! before my wondering eyes, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The great sun steps from out the sea! | 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.