Album Verses
WHEN Eve had led her lord away,And Cain had killed his brother,The stars and flowers, the poets say,Agreed with one another.
To cheat the cunning tempter's art,And teach the race its duty,By keeping on its wicked heartTheir eyes of light and beauty.
A million sleepless lids, they say,Will be at least a warning;And so the flowers would watch by day,The stars from eve to morning.
On hill and prairie, field and lawn,Their dewy eyes upturning,The flowers still watch from reddening dawnTill western skies are burning.
Alas! each hour of daylight tellsA tale of shame so crushing,That some turn white as sea-bleached shells,And some are always blushing.
But when the patient stars look downOn all their light discovers,The traitor's smile, the murderer's frown,The lips of lying lovers,
They try to shut their saddening eyes,And in the vain endeavorWe see them twinkling in the skies,And so they wink forever.
Words in this poem
- sleepless a.
- Having no sleep; wakeful.
- daylight n.
- The light of day as opposed to the darkness of night; the light of the sun, as opposed to that of the moon or to artificial light.
- twinkling n.
- The act of one who, or of that which, twinkles; a quick movement of the eye; a wink; a twinkle. Holland.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Album Verses is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes — Volume 06 Poems from the Breakfast Table Series, Project Gutenberg ebook #7393; 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 Wendell Holmes, Album Verses, in Poems from the Breakfast-Table Series (1858), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7393, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/holmes-breakfast-table-poems/album-verses.html, id L23563.
Form and metre
Album Verses is 28 lines in 7 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
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 ABAB awayA · brotherB · sayA · anotherB
- 2 ABAB artA · dutyB · heartA · beautyB
- 3 ABAB sayA · warningB · dayA · morningB
- 4 ABAB lawnA · upturningB · dawnA · burningB
- 5 ABAB tellsA · crushingB · shellsA · blushingB
- 6 ABAB downA · discoversB · frownA · loversB
- 7 ABAB eyesA · endeavorB · skiesA · foreverB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| WHEN Eve had led her lord away, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| And Cain had killed his brother, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| The stars and flowers, the poets say, | 8 | ···/·/˘· |
| Agreed with one another. | 7 | ˘/··˘/˘ |
| To cheat the cunning tempter's art, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And teach the race its duty, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| By keeping on its wicked heart | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Their eyes of light and beauty. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| A million sleepless lids, they say, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Will be at least a warning; | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| And so the flowers would watch by day, | 8 | ···/···· |
| The stars from eve to morning. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| On hill and prairie, field and lawn, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Their dewy eyes upturning, | 7 | ·/˘·˘/˘ |
| The flowers still watch from reddening dawn | 8 | ·/···/˘· |
| Till western skies are burning. | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| Alas! each hour of daylight tells | 8 | ˘/·/·/·· |
| A tale of shame so crushing, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| That some turn white as sea-bleached shells, | 8 | ········ |
| And some are always blushing. | 7 | ···/·/˘ |
| But when the patient stars look down | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| On all their light discovers, | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| The traitor's smile, the murderer's frown, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The lips of lying lovers, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| They try to shut their saddening eyes, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And in the vain endeavor | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| We see them twinkling in the skies, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And so they wink forever. | 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.