To the Earth
OH! hadst thou kindly arms that could enfold meWhile yet I live, sweet Earth, console and hold meUnto thy bosom, thou, my fruitful Mother.Oh! hadst thou human lips for soft caresses,To meet mine own in some pure kiss that blesses,Whose spell thou knowest, thou dear Earth, none other.
For I am weary of the city’s sorrow,Captive and weary, longing for a morrowThat shall release me from these walls, my prison;My eyes are sickened with the surging faces,And fain would gaze across thy sunlit spaces,Seeking the happy lark but newly risen.
My ears are deafened by the great pulse beatingAlong the streets, monotonous, repeatingIts throbs of toil, futile yet never ending.Would I could hear cool water running seaward,Or sigh of wind at daybreak sweeping leeward,Through purple pines whose happy boughs are bending.
O Earth, dear Mother, as my spirit passes,Make thou sweet fetters of thy flowers and grasses,To bind it surely, lest it wander lonelyIn some far sphere where never wild bird singeth,Where never leaf at breath of Summer springeth,For thou indeed art Heaven, O Earth, thou only!
Words in this poem
- enfold v. t.
- To infold. See Infold.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- fain v. t.
- To be glad ; to wish or desire.
- sunlit a.
- Lighted by the sun.
- futile a.
- Talkative; loquacious; tattling. [L. futilis that easily pours out, that easily lets loose, vain, worthless, from the root of fundere to pour out: cf. F. futile. See Fuse, v. t.]
- seaward a.
- Directed or situated toward the sea. Donne.
- daybreak n.
- The time of the first appearance of light in the morning.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To the Earth 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, To the Earth, in Songs of Three Counties, and Other Poems (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #50591, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hall-three-counties/to-the-earth.html, id L22688.
Form and metre
To the Earth is 24 lines in 4 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABCCB. The metre is iambic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
See other poems in iambic hexameter.
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 AABCCB meA · meA · motherB · caressesC · blessesC · otherB
- 2 AABCCB sorrowA · morrowA · prisonB · facesC · spacesC · risenB
- 3 AABCCB beatingA · repeatingA · endingB · seawardC · leewardC · bendingB
- 4 AABCCB passesA · grassesA · lonelyB · singethC · springethC · onlyB
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 hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| OH! hadst thou kindly arms that could enfold me | 11 | ···/˘···˘/· |
| While yet I live, sweet Earth, console and hold me | 11 | ······/˘··· |
| Unto thy bosom, thou, my fruitful Mother. | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Oh! hadst thou human lips for soft caresses, | 11 | ···/˘···˘/˘ |
| To meet mine own in some pure kiss that blesses, | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| Whose spell thou knowest, thou dear Earth, none other. | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
| For I am weary of the city’s sorrow, | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Captive and weary, longing for a morrow | 11 | /˘·/˘/˘··/˘ |
| That shall release me from these walls, my prison; | 11 | ··˘/·····/˘ |
| My eyes are sickened with the surging faces, | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
| And fain would gaze across thy sunlit spaces, | 11 | ····˘/·/·/˘ |
| Seeking the happy lark but newly risen. | 11 | /˘·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| My ears are deafened by the great pulse beating | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
| Along the streets, monotonous, repeating | 11 | ˘/··˘/˘˘˘/˘ |
| Its throbs of toil, futile yet never ending. | 11 | ····/˘·/˘/˘ |
| Would I could hear cool water running seaward, | 11 | ·····/˘/˘/˘ |
| Or sigh of wind at daybreak sweeping leeward, | 11 | ·····/·/˘/˘ |
| Through purple pines whose happy boughs are bending. | 11 | ·/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| O Earth, dear Mother, as my spirit passes, | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Make thou sweet fetters of thy flowers and grasses, | 12 | ···/˘··/˘·/˘ |
| To bind it surely, lest it wander lonely | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
| In some far sphere where never wild bird singeth, | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| Where never leaf at breath of Summer springeth, | 11 | ·/˘····/˘/˘ |
| For thou indeed art Heaven, O Earth, thou only! | 12 | ··˘/·/˘···/˘ |
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.