To My Brother and Sister in the Country: Written at the Age of Eleven
Happy soon we’ll meet again,Free from sorrow, care, and pain;Soon again we’ll rise with dawn,To roam the verdant dewy lawn;Soon the budding leaves we’ll hail,Or wander through the well-known vale;Or weave the smiling wreath of flowers;And sport away the light-wing’d hours.Soon we’ll run the agile race;Soon, dear playmates, we’ll embrace;--Through the wheat-field or the grove,We’ll hand in hand delighted rove;Or, beneath some spreading oak,Ponder the instructive book;Or view the ships that swiftly glide,Floating on the peaceful tide;Or raise again the caroll’d lay;Or join again in mirthful play;Or listen to the humming bees,As their murmurs swell the breeze;Or seek the primrose where it springs;Or chase the fly with painted wings;Or talk beneath the arbour’s shade;Or mark the tender shooting blade:Or stray beside the babbling stream,When Luna sheds her placid beam;Or gaze upon the glassy sea----Happy, happy shall we be!
Words in this poem
- vale n.
- A tract of low ground, or of land between hills; a valley. [OE. val, F. val, L. vallis; perhaps akin to Gr. Avalanche, Vail to lower, Valley.]
- delighted a.
- Endowed with delight.
- placid a.
- Pleased; contented; unruffied; undisturbed; serene; peaceful; tranquil; quiet; gentle. [L. placidus, originally, pleasing, mild, from placere to please: cf. F. placide. See Please.]
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To My Brother and Sister in the Country: Written at the Age of Eleven 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, To My Brother and Sister in the Country: Written at the Age of Eleven, in Poems (1808–1835), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66785, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hemans-poems/to-my-brother-and-sister-in-the-country-written-at-the-age-o.html, id L13413.
Form and metre
To My Brother and Sister in the Country: Written at the Age of Eleven is 28 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 93% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 96%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.7 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
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 AABBCCDDEEFF--GGHHIIJJKKLLMM againA · painA · dawnB · lawnB · hailC · valeC · flowersD · hoursD · raceE · embraceE · groveF · roveF · oak · book · glideG · tideG · layH · playH · beesI · breezeI · springsJ · wingsJ · shadeK · bladeK · streamL · beamL · seaM · beM
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Happy soon we’ll meet again, | 7 | /˘···˘/ |
| Free from sorrow, care, and pain; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Soon again we’ll rise with dawn, | 7 | ·˘/···· |
| To roam the verdant dewy lawn; | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Soon the budding leaves we’ll hail, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Or wander through the well-known vale; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Or weave the smiling wreath of flowers; | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| And sport away the light-wing’d hours. | 9 | ··˘/···/˘ |
| Soon we’ll run the agile race; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Soon, dear playmates, we’ll embrace;-- | 7 | ··/··˘/ |
| Through the wheat-field or the grove, | 7 | ······· |
| We’ll hand in hand delighted rove; | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Or, beneath some spreading oak, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Ponder the instructive book; | 7 | /˘·˘/˘· |
| Or view the ships that swiftly glide, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Floating on the peaceful tide; | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Or raise again the caroll’d lay; | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Or join again in mirthful play; | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| Or listen to the humming bees, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| As their murmurs swell the breeze; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Or seek the primrose where it springs; | 8 | ···/···· |
| Or chase the fly with painted wings; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Or talk beneath the arbour’s shade; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Or mark the tender shooting blade: | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Or stray beside the babbling stream, | 9 | ··˘/·/˘˘· |
| When Luna sheds her placid beam; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Or gaze upon the glassy sea---- | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Happy, happy shall we be! | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
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