June
O month whose promise and fulfilment blend,And burst in one! it seems the earth can storeIn all her roomy house no treasure more;Of all her wealth no farthing have to spendOn fruit, when once this stintless flowering end.And yet no tiniest flower shall fall beforeIt hath made ready at its hidden coreIts tithe of seed, which we may count and tendTill harvest. Joy of blossomed love, for theeSeems it no fairer thing can yet have birth?No room is left for deeper ecstasy?Watch well if seeds grow strong, to scatter freeGerms for thy future summers on the earth.A joy which is but joy soon comes to dearth.
Words in this poem
- wealth n.
- Weal; welfare; prosperity; good. [OE. welthe, from wele; cf. D. weelde luxury. See Weal prosperity.]
- stintless a.
- Without stint or restraint.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- dearth n.
- Scarcity which renders dear; want; lack; specifically, lack of food on account of failure of crops; famine. [OE. derthe, fr. dere. See Dear.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
June is in the public domain. This text is taken from A Calendar of Sonnets, Project Gutenberg ebook #9825; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Helen Hunt Jackson, June, in A Calendar of Sonnets (1886), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9825, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/jackson-sonnets/june.html, id L22650.
Form and metre
June is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
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 ABBAABBACD-CDD blendA · storeB · moreB · spendA · endA · beforeB · coreB · tendA · theeC · birthD · ecstasy · freeC · earthD · dearthD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| O month whose promise and fulfilment blend, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And burst in one! it seems the earth can store | 10 | ·········· |
| In all her roomy house no treasure more; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Of all her wealth no farthing have to spend | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| On fruit, when once this stintless flowering end. | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| And yet no tiniest flower shall fall before | 10 | ···/˘/···· |
| It hath made ready at its hidden core | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Its tithe of seed, which we may count and tend | 10 | ·········· |
| Till harvest. Joy of blossomed love, for thee | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Seems it no fairer thing can yet have birth? | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| No room is left for deeper ecstasy? | 10 | ·····/˘/˘˘ |
| Watch well if seeds grow strong, to scatter free | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Germs for thy future summers on the earth. | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| A joy which is but joy soon comes to dearth. | 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.