Venus in a Garden
'Twas at early morning,The dawn was blushing in her purple bed,When in a sweet, embowered gardenShe, the fairest of the goddesses,The lovely Venus,Roamed amongst the roses white and red.She sought for flowersTo make a garlandFor her golden head.
Snow-white roses, blood-red roses,In that sweet garden close,Offered incense to the goddess:Both the white and the crimson rose.
White roses, red roses, blossoming:But the fair Venus knewThe crimson roses had gained their hueFrom the hearts that for love had bled;And the goddess made a garlandGathered from the roses red.
Words in this poem
- amongst prep.
- Mixed or mingled; surrounded by. [OE. amongist, amonges, amonge, among, AS. onmang, ongemang, gemang, in a crowd or mixture. For the ending -st see Amidst. See Mingle.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Venus in a Garden is in the public domain. This text is taken from Fifty Years, & Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #17884; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: James Weldon Johnson, Venus in a Garden, in Fifty Years and Other Poems (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17884, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/johnson-fifty-years/venus-in-a-garden.html, id L08331.
Form and metre
Venus in a Garden is 19 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.4 syllables. 10 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 32% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic 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 -A---A--A morning · bedA · garden · goddesses · venus · redA · flowers · garland · headA
- 2 AAAA rosesA · closeA · goddessA · roseA
- 3 -AAB-B blossoming · knewA · hueA · bledB · garland · redB
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| 'Twas at early morning, | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| The dawn was blushing in her purple bed, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| When in a sweet, embowered garden | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| She, the fairest of the goddesses, | 9 | ··/˘··/˘˘ |
| The lovely Venus, | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| Roamed amongst the roses white and red. | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| She sought for flowers | 5 | ···/˘ |
| To make a garland | 5 | ···/˘ |
| For her golden head. | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Snow-white roses, blood-red roses, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| In that sweet garden close, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Offered incense to the goddess: | 8 | /˘/···/˘ |
| Both the white and the crimson rose. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| White roses, red roses, blossoming: | 9 | ·/˘·/˘/˘˘ |
| But the fair Venus knew | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The crimson roses had gained their hue | 9 | ·/˘/˘···· |
| From the hearts that for love had bled; | 8 | ········ |
| And the goddess made a garland | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Gathered from the roses red. | 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.