The Elms
Fine as the dust of plumy fountains blowingAcross the lanterns of a revelling night,The tiny leaves of April's earliest growingPowder the trees--so vaporously light,They seem to float, billows of emerald foamBlown by the South on its bright airy tide,Seeming less trees than things beatified,Come from the world of thought which was their home.
For a while only. Rooted strong and fast,Soon will they lift towards the summer skyTheir mountain-mass of clotted greenery.Their immaterial season quickly past,They grow opaque, and therefore needs must die,Since every earth to earth returns at last.
Words in this poem
- plumy a.
- Covered or adorned with plumes, or as with plumes; feathery.
- greenery n.
- Green plants; verdure.
- needs adv.
- Of necessity; necessarily; indispensably; -- often with must, and equivalent to of need. [Orig. gen. of need, used as an adverb. Cf. - wards.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Elms is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Defeat of Youth, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #24364; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Aldous Huxley, The Elms, in The Defeat of Youth, and Other Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #24364, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/huxley-defeat-of-youth/the-elms.html, id L22012.
Form and metre
The Elms is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ABABCDDC blowingA · nightB · growingA · lightB · foamC · tideD · beatifiedD · homeC
- 2 AB-ABA fastA · skyB · greenery · pastA · dieB · lastA
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Fine as the dust of plumy fountains blowing | 11 | ·····/˘/˘/˘ |
| Across the lanterns of a revelling night, | 11 | ˘/·/˘··˘/˘· |
| The tiny leaves of April's earliest growing | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘/ |
| Powder the trees--so vaporously light, | 10 | /˘········ |
| They seem to float, billows of emerald foam | 10 | ····/˘·/˘· |
| Blown by the South on its bright airy tide, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Seeming less trees than things beatified, | 10 | /˘····˘/˘· |
| Come from the world of thought which was their home. | 10 | ·········· |
| For a while only. Rooted strong and fast, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Soon will they lift towards the summer sky | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Their mountain-mass of clotted greenery. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘˘ |
| Their immaterial season quickly past, | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘/˘· |
| They grow opaque, and therefore needs must die, | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| Since every earth to earth returns at last. | 10 | ·/˘···˘/·· |
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.