Sunstroke
Oh, straight, white road that runs to meet,Across green fields, the blue green sea,You knew the little weary feetOf my child bride that was to be!
Her people brought her from the shoreOne golden day in sultry June,And I stood, waiting, at the door,Praying my eyes might see her soon.
With eager arms, wide open thrown,Now never to be satisfied!Ere I could make my love my ownShe closed her amber eyes and died.
Alas! alas! they took no heedHow frail she was, my little one,But brought her here with cruel speedBeneath the fierce, relentless sun.
We laid her on the marriage bedThe bridal flowers in her hand,A maiden from the ocean ledOnly, alas! to die inland.
I walk alone; the air is sweet,The white road wanders to the sea,I dream of those two little feetThat grew so tired in reaching me.
Words in this poem
- relentless a.
- Unmoved by appeals for sympathy or forgiveness; insensible to the distresses of others; destitute of tenderness; unrelenting; unyielding; unpitying; as, a prey to relentless despotism.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sunstroke is in the public domain. This text is taken from India's Love Lyrics, Project Gutenberg ebook #8197; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Laurence Hope, Sunstroke, in India's Love Lyrics (1901), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8197, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hope-india/sunstroke.html, id L22612.
Form and metre
Sunstroke is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
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 meetA · seaB · feetA · beB
- 2 ABAB shoreA · juneB · doorA · soonB
- 3 ABAB thrownA · satisfiedB · ownA · diedB
- 4 ABAB heedA · oneB · speedA · sunB
- 5 ABAB bedA · handB · ledA · inlandB
- 6 ABAB sweetA · seaB · feetA · meB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Oh, straight, white road that runs to meet, | 8 | ········ |
| Across green fields, the blue green sea, | 8 | ˘/······ |
| You knew the little weary feet | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Of my child bride that was to be! | 8 | ········ |
| Her people brought her from the shore | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| One golden day in sultry June, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And I stood, waiting, at the door, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Praying my eyes might see her soon. | 8 | /˘······ |
| With eager arms, wide open thrown, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Now never to be satisfied! | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Ere I could make my love my own | 8 | ········ |
| She closed her amber eyes and died. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Alas! alas! they took no heed | 8 | ˘/˘/···· |
| How frail she was, my little one, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| But brought her here with cruel speed | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Beneath the fierce, relentless sun. | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| We laid her on the marriage bed | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The bridal flowers in her hand, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| A maiden from the ocean led | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Only, alas! to die inland. | 8 | /˘˘/··/· |
| I walk alone; the air is sweet, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| The white road wanders to the sea, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| I dream of those two little feet | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| That grew so tired in reaching me. | 8 | ···/·/˘· |
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.