To the Herb Rosemary
Sweet scented flower! who art wont to bloomOn January's front severe,And o'er the wintry desert drearTo waft thy waste perfume!Come, thou shalt form my nosegay now,And I will bind thee round my brow;And as I twine the mournful wreath,I'll weave a melancholy song;And sweet the strain shall be, and long,The melody of death.
Come, funeral flower! who lovest to dwellWith the pale corse in lonely tomb,And throw across the desert gloomA sweet decaying smell.Come, press my lips, and lie with meBeneath the lowly alder tree,And we will sleep a pleasant sleep,And not a care shall dare intrudeTo break the marble solitude,So peaceful and so deep.
And hark! the wind god, as he flies,Moans hollow in the forest trees,And sailing on the gusty breeze,Mysterious music dies.Sweet flower! that requiem wild is mine,It warns me to the lonely shrine,The cold turf altar of the dead:My grave shall be in yon lone spot,Where as I lie, by all forgot,A dying fragrance thou wilt o'er my ashes shed.
Words in this poem
- wintry a.
- Suitable to winter; resembling winter, or what belongs to winter; brumal; hyemal; cold; stormy; wintery. [AS. wintrig.]
- drear n.
- Sadness; dismalness.
- waft v. t.
- To give notice to by waving something; to wave the hand to; to beckon. [Prob. originally imp. & p. p. of wave, v. t. See Wave to waver.]
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
- nosegay n.
- A bunch of odorous and showy flowers; a bouquet; a posy. [Nose + gay in the sense of a gay or showy thing.]
- 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,]
- 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]
- corse n.
- A living body or its bulk. [OF. cors, F. corps. See Corpse.]
- alder a.
- Of all; -- used in composition; as, alderbest, best of all, alderwisest, wisest of all. [From ealra, alra, gen. pl. of AS. eal. The d is excrescent.]
- gusty a.
- Subject to, or characterized by, gusts or squalls; windy; stormy; tempestuous.
- requiem n.
- A mass said or sung for the repose of a departed soul. [Acc. of L. requies rest, the first words of the Mass being "Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine," give eternal rest to them, O lord; pref. re- re + quies quiet. S]
- lone n.
- A lane. See Loanin.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To the Herb Rosemary is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of Henry Kirk White : With a Memoir by Sir Harris Nicolas, Project Gutenberg ebook #7149; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Henry Kirke White, To the Herb Rosemary, in The Poetical Works of Henry Kirke White (1803–1806), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7149, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kirke-white-poems/to-the-herb-rosemary.html, id L10112.
Form and metre
To the Herb Rosemary is 30 lines in 3 stanzas of 10 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABBACCDEED, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 20% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 ABBACC-DD- bloomA · severeB · drearB · perfumeA · nowC · browC · wreath · songD · longD · death
- 2 ABBACCDEED dwellA · tombB · gloomB · smellA · meC · treeC · sleepD · intrudeE · solitudeE · deepD
- 3 ABBACCDEED fliesA · treesB · breezeB · diesA · mineC · shrineC · deadD · spotE · forgotE · shedD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Sweet scented flower! who art wont to bloom | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| On January's front severe, | 8 | ·/˘·˘·˘/ |
| And o'er the wintry desert drear | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| To waft thy waste perfume! | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Come, thou shalt form my nosegay now, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And I will bind thee round my brow; | 8 | ········ |
| And as I twine the mournful wreath, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| I'll weave a melancholy song; | 8 | ···/˘·˘· |
| And sweet the strain shall be, and long, | 8 | ········ |
| The melody of death. | 6 | ·/˘˘·· |
| Come, funeral flower! who lovest to dwell | 10 | ·/˘˘/····· |
| With the pale corse in lonely tomb, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And throw across the desert gloom | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| A sweet decaying smell. | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| Come, press my lips, and lie with me | 8 | ········ |
| Beneath the lowly alder tree, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| And we will sleep a pleasant sleep, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And not a care shall dare intrude | 8 | ······˘/ |
| To break the marble solitude, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| So peaceful and so deep. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And hark! the wind god, as he flies, | 8 | ········ |
| Moans hollow in the forest trees, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And sailing on the gusty breeze, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Mysterious music dies. | 7 | ˘/˘˘/˘· |
| Sweet flower! that requiem wild is mine, | 10 | ·/˘·/˘˘··· |
| It warns me to the lonely shrine, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The cold turf altar of the dead: | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| My grave shall be in yon lone spot, | 8 | ········ |
| Where as I lie, by all forgot, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| A dying fragrance thou wilt o'er my ashes shed. | 12 | ·/˘/˘····/˘· |
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.