Servant Girl and Grocer's Boy
Her lips' remark was: "Oh, you kid!"Her soul spoke thus (I know it did):
"O king of realms of endless joy,My own, my golden grocer's boy,
I am a princess forced to dwellWithin a lonely kitchen cell,
While you go dashing through the landWith loveliness on every hand.
Your whistle strikes my eager earsLike music of the choiring spheres.
The mighty earth grows faint and reelsBeneath your thundering wagon wheels.
How keenly, perilously sweetTo cling upon that swaying seat!
How happy she who by your sideMay share the splendors of that ride!
Ah, if you will not take my handAnd bear me off across the land,
Then, traveller from Arcady,Remain awhile and comfort me.
What other maiden can you findSo young and delicate and kind?"
Her lips' remark was: "Oh, you kid!"Her soul spoke thus (I know it did).
Words in this poem
- spoke n.
- The radius or ray of a wheel; one of the small bars which are inserted in the hub, or nave, and which serve to support the rim or felly. [OE. spoke, spake, AS, spaca; akin to D. speek, LG. speke, OHG. speihha, G. speiche. sq. root170. Cf. Spike a nail.]
- princess n.
- A female prince; a woman having sovereign power, or the rank of a prince. [F. princesse. See Prince, and cf. Princesse.]
- dwell v. i.
- To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
- loveliness n.
- The state or quality of being lovely. [From Lovely.]
- thundering a.
- Emitting thunder.
- keenly adv.
- In a keen manner.
- awhile adv.
- For a while; for some time; for a short time. [Adj. a + while time, interval.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Servant Girl and Grocer's Boy is in the public domain. This text is taken from Trees, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #263; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Joyce Kilmer, Servant Girl and Grocer's Boy, in Trees and Other Poems (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #263, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kilmer-trees/servant-girl-and-grocer-s-boy.html, id L12894.
Form and metre
Servant Girl and Grocer's Boy is 24 lines in 12 stanzas of 2 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 92% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 33% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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 AA kidA · didA
- 2 AA joyA · boyA
- 3 AA dwellA · cellA
- 4 AA landA · handA
- 5 AA earsA · spheresA
- 6 AA reelsA · wheelsA
- 7 AA sweetA · seatA
- 8 AA sideA · rideA
- 9 AA handA · landA
- 11 AA findA · kindA
- 12 AA kidA · didA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Her lips' remark was: "Oh, you kid!" | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Her soul spoke thus (I know it did): | 8 | ········ |
| "O king of realms of endless joy, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| My own, my golden grocer's boy, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| I am a princess forced to dwell | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Within a lonely kitchen cell, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| While you go dashing through the land | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| With loveliness on every hand. | 8 | ·/˘˘·/˘· |
| Your whistle strikes my eager ears | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Like music of the choiring spheres. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The mighty earth grows faint and reels | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Beneath your thundering wagon wheels. | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| How keenly, perilously sweet | 8 | ·/˘/˘˘˘· |
| To cling upon that swaying seat! | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| How happy she who by your side | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| May share the splendors of that ride! | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Ah, if you will not take my hand | 8 | ········ |
| And bear me off across the land, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Then, traveller from Arcady, | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| Remain awhile and comfort me. | 8 | ˘/˘/·/˘· |
| What other maiden can you find | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| So young and delicate and kind?" | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| Her lips' remark was: "Oh, you kid!" | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Her soul spoke thus (I know it did). | 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.