Desideria
The angels of the sunlight clotheIn England the corn's golden ears,Round me: yet would that I to-daySaw sunlight on the Hill of Howth,And sunlight on the Golden Spears,And sunlight upon Dublin Bay.
In hunger of the heart I loatheThese happy fields: I turn with tearsOf love and longing, far away:To where the heathered Hill of HowthStands guardian, with the Golden Spears,Above the blue of Dublin Bay.
About this text
Desideria is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #66520; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Lionel Johnson, Desideria, in Poems (1895), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66520, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/johnson-lionel-poems/desideria.html, id L12539.
Form and metre
Desideria is 12 lines in 2 stanzas of 6 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
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 -AB-AB clothe · earsA · dayB · howth · spearsA · bayB
- 2 -AB-AB loathe · tearsA · awayB · howth · spearsA · bayB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The angels of the sunlight clothe | 8 | ·/˘··/·· |
| In England the corn's golden ears, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Round me: yet would that I to-day | 8 | ········ |
| Saw sunlight on the Hill of Howth, | 8 | ·/······ |
| And sunlight on the Golden Spears, | 8 | ·/···/˘· |
| And sunlight upon Dublin Bay. | 8 | ·/···/˘· |
| In hunger of the heart I loathe | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| These happy fields: I turn with tears | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Of love and longing, far away: | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| To where the heathered Hill of Howth | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Stands guardian, with the Golden Spears, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Above the blue of Dublin Bay. | 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.