The Upper Birch-Leaves
Warm yellowy-greenIn the blue serene,How they skip and swayOn this autumn day!They cannot knowWhat has happened below,—That their boughs down thereAre already quite bare,That their own will beWhen a week has passed,—For they jig as in gleeTo this very last.
But no; there liesAt times in their tuneA note that criesWhat at first I fearI did not hear:“O we rememberAt each wind’s hollo—Though life holds yet—We go hence soon,For ’tis November;—But that you followYou may forget!”
Words in this poem
- glee n.
- Music; minstrelsy; entertainment.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Upper Birch-Leaves is in the public domain. This text is taken from Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses, Project Gutenberg ebook #3255; 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 Hardy, The Upper Birch-Leaves, in Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3255, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hardy-moments-of-vision/the-upper-birch-leaves.html, id L24196.
Form and metre
The Upper Birch-Leaves is 24 lines in 2 stanzas of 12 lines each. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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 AABBCCDDEFEF greenA · sereneA · swayB · dayB · knowC · belowC · thereD · bareD · beE · passedF · gleeE · lastF
- 2 ABACCD-EBD-E liesA · tuneB · criesA · fearC · hearC · rememberD · hollo · yetE · soonB · novemberD · follow · forgetE
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Warm yellowy-green | 5 | ····· |
| In the blue serene, | 5 | ···˘/ |
| How they skip and sway | 5 | ····· |
| On this autumn day! | 5 | ··/˘· |
| They cannot know | 4 | ·/˘· |
| What has happened below,— | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| That their boughs down there | 5 | ····· |
| Are already quite bare, | 6 | ·˘/˘·· |
| That their own will be | 5 | ····· |
| When a week has passed,— | 5 | ····· |
| For they jig as in glee | 6 | ······ |
| To this very last. | 5 | ··/˘· |
| But no; there lies | 4 | ···· |
| At times in their tune | 5 | ····· |
| A note that cries | 4 | ···· |
| What at first I fear | 5 | ····· |
| I did not hear: | 4 | ···· |
| “O we remember | 5 | ··˘/˘ |
| At each wind’s hollo— | 5 | ···/· |
| Though life holds yet— | 4 | ···· |
| We go hence soon, | 4 | ···· |
| For ’tis November; | 5 | ··˘/˘ |
| —But that you follow | 5 | ···/˘ |
| You may forget!” | 4 | ··˘/ |
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.