The Summer’s Call
Come away! The sunny hoursWoo thee far to founts and bowers!O’er the very waters now,In their play,Flowers are shedding beauty’s glow--Come away!Where the lily’s tender gleamQuivers on the glancing stream,Come away!
All the air is fill’d with sound,Soft, and sultry, and profound;Murmurs through the shadowy grassLightly stray;Faint winds whisper as they pass--Come away!Where the bee’s deep music swellsFrom the trembling foxglove bells,Come away!
In the skies the sapphire blueNow hath won its richest hue;In the woods the breath of songNight and dayFloats with leafy scents along--Come away!Where the boughs with dewy gloomDarken each thick bed of bloom,Come away!
In the deep heart of the roseNow the crimson love-hue glows;Now the glow-worm’s lamp by nightSheds a ray,Dreamy, starry, greenly bright--Come away!Where the fairy cup-moss lies,With the wild-wood strawberries,Come away!
Now each tree by summer crown’d,Sheds its own rich twilight round;Glancing there from sun to shade,Bright wings play;There the deer its couch hath made--Come away!Where the smooth leaves of the limeGlisten in their honey-time,Come away--away!
‘Have you not seen the nightingale,A pilgrim cooped into a cage,How doth she chant her wonted taleIn that her lonely hermitage?Even there her charming melody doth prove,That all her boughs are trees, her cage a grove.’”
Words in this poem
- sunny a.
- Of or pertaining to the sun; proceeding from, or resembling the sun; hence, shining; bright; brilliant; radiant.
- glancing a.
- Shooting, as light.
- dreamy a.
- Abounding in dreams or given to dreaming; appropriate to, or like, dreams; visionary.
- starry a.
- Abounding with stars; adorned with stars.
- greenly adv.
- With a green color; newly; freshly, immaturely.
- wonted a.
- Accustomed; customary; usual.
- hermitage n.
- The habitation of a hermit; a secluded residence. [OE. hermitage, ermitage, F. hermitage, ermitage. See Hermit.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Summer’s Call is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Felicia Hemans, Project Gutenberg ebook #66785; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Felicia Hemans, The Summer’s Call, in Poems (1808–1835), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66785, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hemans-poems/the-summer-s-call.html, id L19645.
Form and metre
The Summer’s Call is 51 lines in 6 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is AABCBCDDC, complete in 4 of its 6 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
See other poems in trochaic 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-B-BCCB hoursA · bowersA · now · playB · glow · awayB · gleamC · streamC · awayB
- 2 AABCBCDDC soundA · profoundA · grassB · strayC · passB · awayC · swellsD · bellsD · awayC
- 3 AABCBCDDC blueA · hueA · songB · dayC · alongB · awayC · gloomD · bloomD · awayC
- 4 AABCBCDDC roseA · glowsA · nightB · rayC · brightB · awayC · liesD · strawberriesD · awayC
- 5 AABCBCDDC crown'dA · roundA · shadeB · playC · madeB · awayC · limeD · timeD · awayC
- 6 ABAB-- nightingaleA · cageB · taleA · hermitageB · prove · grove
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Come away! The sunny hours | 8 | ·˘/·/˘/˘ |
| Woo thee far to founts and bowers! | 8 | ······/˘ |
| O’er the very waters now, | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| In their play, | 3 | ··· |
| Flowers are shedding beauty’s glow-- | 7 | /·/˘/˘· |
| Come away! | 3 | ·˘/ |
| Where the lily’s tender gleam | 7 | ··/·/˘· |
| Quivers on the glancing stream, | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Come away! | 3 | ·˘/ |
| All the air is fill’d with sound, | 7 | ······· |
| Soft, and sultry, and profound; | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| Murmurs through the shadowy grass | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Lightly stray; | 3 | /˘· |
| Faint winds whisper as they pass-- | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Come away! | 3 | ·˘/ |
| Where the bee’s deep music swells | 7 | ····/˘· |
| From the trembling foxglove bells, | 7 | ··/˘/·· |
| Come away! | 3 | ·˘/ |
| In the skies the sapphire blue | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Now hath won its richest hue; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| In the woods the breath of song | 7 | ······· |
| Night and day | 3 | ··· |
| Floats with leafy scents along-- | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| Come away! | 3 | ·˘/ |
| Where the boughs with dewy gloom | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Darken each thick bed of bloom, | 7 | /˘····· |
| Come away! | 3 | ·˘/ |
| In the deep heart of the rose | 7 | ······· |
| Now the crimson love-hue glows; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Now the glow-worm’s lamp by night | 7 | ······· |
| Sheds a ray, | 3 | ··· |
| Dreamy, starry, greenly bright-- | 7 | /˘/˘/˘· |
| Come away! | 3 | ·˘/ |
| Where the fairy cup-moss lies, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| With the wild-wood strawberries, | 7 | ····/·˘ |
| Come away! | 3 | ·˘/ |
| Now each tree by summer crown’d, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Sheds its own rich twilight round; | 7 | ····/·· |
| Glancing there from sun to shade, | 7 | /˘····· |
| Bright wings play; | 3 | ··· |
| There the deer its couch hath made-- | 7 | ······· |
| Come away! | 3 | ·˘/ |
| Where the smooth leaves of the lime | 7 | ······· |
| Glisten in their honey-time, | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Come away--away! | 5 | ·˘/˘/ |
| ‘Have you not seen the nightingale, | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| A pilgrim cooped into a cage, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| How doth she chant her wonted tale | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| In that her lonely hermitage? | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| Even there her charming melody doth prove, | 9 | /··/˘/˘·· |
| That all her boughs are trees, her cage a grove.’” | 10 | ·········· |
Notes from the edition 1
Notes from The Poems of Felicia Hemans (Project Gutenberg #66785), largely Mrs Hemans's own.
- Stanza 5, line 9 “In my literary pursuits,” wrote Mrs Hemans at this time to a friend, “I fear I shall be obliged to look out for an amanuensis. I sometimes retain a piece of poetry several weeks in my memory, from actual dread of writing it down.... I was so glad you liked my little summer breathing strain, (‘The Summer’s Call.’) I assure you it quite consoled me for the want of natural objects of beauty around, to heap up their remembered images in one wild strain.”
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.