Ballade (Double Refrain) of Midsummer Days and Nights
WITH a ripple of leaves and a tinkle of streamsThe full world rolls in a rhythm of praise,And the winds are one with the clouds and beams—Midsummer days! Midsummer days!The dusk grows vast; in a purple haze,While the West from a rapture of sunset rights,Faint stars their exquisite lamps upraise—Midsummer nights! O midsummer nights!
The wood’s green heart is a nest of dreams,The lush grass thickens and springs and sways,The rathe wheat rustles, the landscape gleams—Midsummer days! Midsummer days!In the stilly fields, in the stilly ways,All secret shadows and mystic lights,Late lovers murmur and linger and gaze—Midsummer nights! O midsummer nights!
There’s a music of bells from the trampling teams,Wild skylarks hover, the gorses blaze,The rich, ripe rose as with incense steams—Midsummer days! Midsummer days!A soul from the honeysuckle strays,And the nightingale as from prophet heightsSings to the Earth of her million Mays—Midsummer nights! O midsummer nights!
And it’s O, for my dear and the charm that stays—Midsummer days! Midsummer days!It’s O, for my Love and the dark that plights—Midsummer nights! O midsummer nights!
Words in this poem
- midsummer n.
- The middle of summer. Shak. Midsummer daisy (Bot.), the oxeye daisy. [AS. midsumor.]
- upraise v. t.
- To raise; to lift up.
- lush a.
- Full of juice or succulence. [Prob. an abbrev. of lushious, fr. luscious.]
- rathe a.
- Coming before others, or before the usual time; early. [AS. hræ\'eb, hræd, quick, akin to OHG. hrad, Icel. hrathr.]
- stilly a.
- Still; quiet; calm.
- hover n.
- A cover; a shelter; a protection. Carew. C. Kingsley. [Etymol. doubtful.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Ballade (Double Refrain) of Midsummer Days and Nights 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, Ballade (Double Refrain) of Midsummer Days and Nights, in Poems (1898), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1568, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/henley-poems/to-w-h.html, id L20701.
Form and metre
Ballade (Double Refrain) of Midsummer Days and Nights is 28 lines in 4 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABABBCBC, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. 82% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.3 syllables. 8% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 ABABBCBC streamsA · praiseB · beamsA · daysB · hazeB · rightsC · upraiseB · nightsC
- 2 ABABBCBC dreamsA · swaysB · gleamsA · daysB · waysB · lightsC · gazeB · nightsC
- 3 ABABBCBC teamsA · blazeB · steamsA · daysB · straysB · heightsC · maysB · nightsC
- 4 AA-- staysA · daysA · plights · nights
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| WITH a ripple of leaves and a tinkle of streams | 12 | ··/˘····/˘·· |
| The full world rolls in a rhythm of praise, | 10 | ······/˘·· |
| And the winds are one with the clouds and beams— | 10 | ·········· |
| Midsummer days! Midsummer days! | 8 | //˘·//˘· |
| The dusk grows vast; in a purple haze, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| While the West from a rapture of sunset rights, | 11 | ·····/˘·/·· |
| Faint stars their exquisite lamps upraise— | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Midsummer nights! O midsummer nights! | 9 | //˘··//˘· |
| The wood’s green heart is a nest of dreams, | 9 | ········· |
| The lush grass thickens and springs and sways, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| The rathe wheat rustles, the landscape gleams— | 9 | ···/˘·/·· |
| Midsummer days! Midsummer days! | 8 | //˘·//˘· |
| In the stilly fields, in the stilly ways, | 10 | ··/˘···/˘· |
| All secret shadows and mystic lights, | 9 | ·/˘/··/˘· |
| Late lovers murmur and linger and gaze— | 10 | ·/˘/˘·/˘·· |
| Midsummer nights! O midsummer nights! | 9 | //˘··//˘· |
| There’s a music of bells from the trampling teams, | 11 | ··/˘····/˘· |
| Wild skylarks hover, the gorses blaze, | 9 | ·/·/˘···· |
| The rich, ripe rose as with incense steams— | 9 | ······˘/· |
| Midsummer days! Midsummer days! | 8 | //˘·//˘· |
| A soul from the honeysuckle strays, | 9 | ····/˘·˘· |
| And the nightingale as from prophet heights | 9 | ··/˘··/˘· |
| Sings to the Earth of her million Mays— | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Midsummer nights! O midsummer nights! | 9 | //˘··//˘· |
| And it’s O, for my dear and the charm that stays— | 11 | ··········· |
| Midsummer days! Midsummer days! | 8 | //˘·//˘· |
| It’s O, for my Love and the dark that plights— | 10 | ·········· |
| Midsummer nights! O midsummer nights! | 9 | //˘··//˘· |
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.