The ways are green with the gladdening sheen
THE ways are green with the gladdening sheenOf the young year’s fairest daughter.O, the shadows that fleet o’er the springing wheat!O, the magic of running water!The spirit of spring is in every thing,The banners of spring are streaming,We march to a tune from the fifes of June,And life’s a dream worth dreaming.
It’s all very well to sit and spellAt the lesson there’s no gainsaying;But what the deuce are wont and useWhen the whole mad world’s a-maying?When the meadow glows, and the orchard snows,And the air’s with love-motes teeming,When fancies break, and the senses wake,O, life’s a dream worth dreaming!
What Nature has writ with her lusty witIs worded so wisely and kindlyThat whoever has dipped in her manuscriptMust up and follow her blindly.Now the summer prime is her blithest rhymeIn the being and the seeming,And they that have heard the overwordKnow life’s a dream worth dreaming.
Words in this poem
- sheen v. i.
- To shine; to glisten.
- streaming a.
- Sending forth streams.
- teeming a.
- Prolific; productive.
- whoever pron.
- Whatever person; any person who; be or she who; any one who; as, he shall be punished, whoever he may be.
- blindly adv.
- Without sight, discernment, or understanding; without thought, investigation, knowledge, or purpose of one's own.
- overword v. t.
- To say in too many words; to express verbosely. Hales.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The ways are green with the gladdening sheen is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #1568; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: W. E. Henley, The ways are green with the gladdening sheen, in Poems (1898), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1568, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/henley-poems/the-ways-are-green-with-the-gladdening-sheen.html, id L12416.
Form and metre
The ways are green with the gladdening sheen is 24 lines in 3 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 77%). 85% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.8 syllables. 12 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 33% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 -A-ABB-B sheen · daughterA · wheat · waterA · thingB · streamingB · june · dreamingB
- 2 -A-A-B-B spell · gainsayingA · use · mayingA · snows · teemingB · wake · dreamingB
- 3 -A-A-B-B wit · kindlyA · manuscript · blindlyA · rhyme · seemingB · overword · dreamingB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| THE ways are green with the gladdening sheen | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Of the young year’s fairest daughter. | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| O, the shadows that fleet o’er the springing wheat! | 11 | ··/·····/˘· |
| O, the magic of running water! | 9 | ··/˘·/˘/˘ |
| The spirit of spring is in every thing, | 9 | ·/····/˘· |
| The banners of spring are streaming, | 8 | ·/˘···/˘ |
| We march to a tune from the fifes of June, | 10 | ·········· |
| And life’s a dream worth dreaming. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| It’s all very well to sit and spell | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| At the lesson there’s no gainsaying; | 9 | ··/˘··/·˘ |
| But what the deuce are wont and use | 8 | ········ |
| When the whole mad world’s a-maying? | 8 | ······/˘ |
| When the meadow glows, and the orchard snows, | 10 | ··/····/˘· |
| And the air’s with love-motes teeming, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| When fancies break, and the senses wake, | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
| O, life’s a dream worth dreaming! | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| What Nature has writ with her lusty wit | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Is worded so wisely and kindly | 9 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘ |
| That whoever has dipped in her manuscript | 11 | ·˘/˘····/˘· |
| Must up and follow her blindly. | 8 | ···/˘·/˘ |
| Now the summer prime is her blithest rhyme | 10 | ··/˘···/˘· |
| In the being and the seeming, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| And they that have heard the overword | 9 | ········· |
| Know life’s a dream worth dreaming. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
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.