The Difference
In the spring the Leaves come outAnd the little Poetlets sprout;Everywhere they may be seen,Each as Fresh as each is Green.Each hangs on through scorch and scoffTill the fall, when both “come off,”With this difference, be it said,That the leaves at least are Red.
Words in this poem
- scorch v. t.
- To burn superficially; to parch, or shrivel, the surface of, by heat; to subject to so much heat as changes color and texture without consuming; as, to scorch linen. [OE. scorchen, probably akin to scorcnen; cf. Norw. skrokken shrunk up, skrekka, skrökka, to shrink, to become wrinkled up, dial. Sw. skråkkla to wrinkle (see Sh]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Difference is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Bashful Earthquake, & Other Fables and Verses, Project Gutenberg ebook #56765; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Oliver Herford, The Difference, in The Bashful Earthquake, and Other Fables and Verses (1898), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56765, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herford-bashful-earthquake/the-difference.html, id L22100.
Form and metre
The Difference is 8 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%).
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 AABBCCDD outA · sproutA · seenB · greenB · scoffC · offC · saidD · redD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| In the spring the Leaves come out | 7 | ······· |
| And the little Poetlets sprout; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Everywhere they may be seen, | 7 | /˘····· |
| Each as Fresh as each is Green. | 7 | ······· |
| Each hangs on through scorch and scoff | 7 | ······· |
| Till the fall, when both “come off,” | 7 | ······· |
| With this difference, be it said, | 8 | ··/˘˘··· |
| That the leaves at least are Red. | 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.