Summer Storm
The wind, hark! the wind in the angry woods:And low clouds purple the west: there broodsThunder, thunder; and rain will fall;Fresh fragrance cling to the wind from allRoses holding water wells,Laurels gleaming to the gusty air;Wilding mosses of the dells,Drenched hayfields, and dripping hedgerows fair.
The wind, hark! the wind dying again:The wind's voice matches the far-off main,In sighing cadences: Pan will wake,Pan in the forest, whose rich pipes makeMusic to the folding flowers,In the pure eve, where no hot spells are:Those be favourable hoursHymned by Pan beneath the shepherd star.
Words in this poem
- angry a.
- Troublesome; vexatious; rigorous. [See Anger.]
- gusty a.
- Subject to, or characterized by, gusts or squalls; windy; stormy; tempestuous.
- wilding a.
- Not tame, domesticated, or cultivated; wild.
- dripping n.
- A falling in drops, or the sound so made.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Summer Storm 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, Summer Storm, in Poems (1895), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66520, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/johnson-lionel-poems/summer-storm.html, id L12485.
Form and metre
Summer Storm is 16 lines in 2 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is trochaic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 76%).
See other poems in trochaic 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 --AABCBC woods · broods · fallA · allA · wellsB · airC · dellsB · fairC
- 2 AABBCDCD againA · mainA · wakeB · makeB · flowersC · areD · hoursC · starD
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The wind, hark! the wind in the angry woods: | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And low clouds purple the west: there broods | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Thunder, thunder; and rain will fall; | 8 | /˘/˘···· |
| Fresh fragrance cling to the wind from all | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| Roses holding water wells, | 7 | /˘/˘/˘· |
| Laurels gleaming to the gusty air; | 9 | /˘/˘··/˘· |
| Wilding mosses of the dells, | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| Drenched hayfields, and dripping hedgerows fair. | 10 | ·/··/˘···· |
| The wind, hark! the wind dying again: | 9 | ·····/˘˘/ |
| The wind's voice matches the far-off main, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| In sighing cadences: Pan will wake, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Pan in the forest, whose rich pipes make | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Music to the folding flowers, | 8 | /˘··/˘/˘ |
| In the pure eve, where no hot spells are: | 9 | ········· |
| Those be favourable hours | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Hymned by Pan beneath the shepherd star. | 9 | ······/˘· |
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.