A Florida Ghost
Down mildest shores of milk-white sand,By cape and fair Floridian bay,Twixt billowy pines -- a surf asleep on land --And the great Gulf at play,
Past far-off palms that filmed to nought,Or in and out the cunning keysThat laced the land like fragile patterns wroughtTo edge old broideries,
The sail sighed on all day for joy,The prow each pouting wave did leaveAll smile and song, with sheen and ripple coy,Till the dusk diver Eve
Brought up from out the brimming EastThe oval moon, a perfect pearl.In that large lustre all our haste surceased,The sail seemed fain to furl,
The silent steersman landward turned,And ship and shore set breast to breast.Under a palm wherethrough a planet burnedWe ate, and sank to rest.
But soon from sleep's dear death (it seemed)I rose and strolled along the seaDown silver distances that faintly gleamedOn to infinity.
Till suddenly I paused, for lo!A shape (from whence I ne'er divined)Appeared before me, pacing to and fro,With head far down inclined.
`A wraith' (I thought) `that walks the shoreTo solve some old perplexity.'Full heavy hung the draggled gown he wore;His hair flew all awry.
He waited not (as ghosts oft use)To be `dearheaven'd!' and `oh'd!'But briskly said: "Good-evenin'; what's the news?Consumption? After boa'd?
"Or mebbe you're intendin' ofInvestments? Orange-plantin'? Pine?Hotel? or Sanitarium? What aboveThis yea'th CAN be your line?
"Speakin' of sanitariums, now,Jest look 'ee here, my friend:I know a little story, -- well, I swow,Wait till you hear the end!
"Some year or more ago, I s'pose,I roamed from Maine to Floridy,And, -- see where them Palmettos grows?I bought that little key,
"Cal'latin' for to build right offA c'lossal sanitarium:Big surf! Gulf breeze! Jest death upon a cough!-- I run it high, to hum!
"Well, sir, I went to work in style:Bought me a steamboat, loaded itWith my hotel (pyazers more'n a mile!)Already framed and fit,
"Insured 'em, fetched 'em safe around,Put up my buildin', moored my boat,COM-plete! then went to bed and slept as soundAs if I'd paid a note.
"Now on that very night a squall,Cum up from some'eres -- some bad place!An' blowed an' tore an' reared an' pitched an' all,-- I had to run a race
"Right out o' bed from that hotelAn' git to yonder risin' ground,For, 'twixt the sea that riz and rain that fell,I pooty nigh was drowned!
"An' thar I stood till mornin' cum,Right on yon little knoll of sand,FreQUENTly wishin' I had stayed to humFur from this tarnal land.
"When mornin' cum, I took a goodLong look, and -- well, sir, sure's I'm ME --That boat laid right whar that hotel had stood,And HIT sailed out to sea!
"No: I'll not keep you: good-bye, friend.Don't think about it much, -- preehapsYour brain might git see-sawin', end for end,Like them asylum chaps,
"For here *I walk, forevermore,A-tryin' to make it gee,How one same wind could blow my ship to shoreAnd my hotel to sea!"
Words in this poem 17
- billowy a.
- Of or pertaining to billows; swelling or swollen into large waves; full of billows or surges; resembling billows.
- laced a.
- Fastened with a lace or laces; decorated with narrow strips or braid. See Lace, v. t.
- pouting n.
- Childish sullenness.
- sheen v. i.
- To shine; to glisten.
- brimming a.
- Full to the brim; overflowing.
- lustre n.
- A period of five years; a lustrum. [L. lustrum: cf. F. lustre.]
- fain v. t.
- To be glad ; to wish or desire.
- furl v. t.
- To draw up or gather into close compass; to wrap or roll, as a sail, close to the yard, stay, or mast, or, as a flag, close to or around its staff, securing it there by a gasket or line. Totten. [Contr. fr. furdle, fr. fardel bundle: cf. F. ferler to furl, OF. fardeler to pack. See Furdle, Fardel, and cf. Farl.]
- landward adv.
- Toward the land.
- sanitarium n.
- A health station or retreat; a sanatorium. [NL. See Sanitary.]
- jest n.
- A deed; an action; a gest. [OE. jeste, geste, deed, action, story, tale, OF. geste, LL. gesta, orig., exploits, neut. pl. from L. gestus, p. p. of gerere to bear, carry, accomplish, perfor]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- tore n.
- The dead grass that remains on mowing land in winter and spring. Mortimer. [Probably from the root of tear; cf. W. tór a break, cut, tóri to break, cut.]
- yonder adv.
- At a distance, but within view. [OE. yonder, ýonder; cf. OD. ginder, Goth. jaindr there. Yond, adv.]
- thar v.
- It needs; need. Piers Plowman. [OE. thar, Þarf, AS. Þearf, infin. Þurfan to need; akin to OHG. durfan, G. dürfen to be allowed, Icel. Þurfa to need, Goth. Þaúrban.]
- stayed a.
- Staid; fixed; settled; sober; -- now written staid. See Staid.
- asylum n.
- A sanctuary or place of refuge and protection, where criminals and debtors found shelter, and from which they could not be forcibly taken without sacrilege.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Florida Ghost is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Sidney Lanier, Project Gutenberg ebook #579; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Sidney Lanier, A Florida Ghost, in Poems (1884), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #579, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lanier-poems/a-florida-ghost.html, id L07665.
Form and metre
A Florida Ghost is 84 lines in 21 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 15 of its 21 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.1 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 24% 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 ABAB sandA · bayB · landA · playB
- 2 A-A- noughtA · keys · wroughtA · broideries
- 3 ABAB joyA · leaveB · coyA · eveB
- 4 ABAB eastA · pearlB · surceasedA · furlB
- 5 ABAB turnedA · breastB · burnedA · restB
- 6 A-A- seemedA · sea · gleamedA · infinity
- 7 ABAB loA · divinedB · froA · inclinedB
- 8 A-A- shoreA · perplexity · woreA · awry
- 9 A-A- useA · `oh'd · newsA · boa'd
- 10 ABAB ofA · pineB · aboveA · lineB
- 11 ABAB nowA · friendB · swowA · endB
- 12 A-A- s'poseA · floridy · growsA · key
- 13 A-A- offA · sanitarium · coughA · hum
- 14 ABAB styleA · itB · mileA · fitB
- 15 ABAB aroundA · boatB · soundA · noteB
- 16 ABAB squallA · placeB · allA · raceB
- 17 ABAB hotelA · groundB · fellA · drownedB
- 18 ABAB cumA · sandB · humA · landB
- 19 ABAB goodA · meB · stoodA · seaB
- 20 ABAB friendA · preehapsB · endA · chapsB
- 21 ABAB forevermoreA · geeB · shoreA · seaB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Down mildest shores of milk-white sand, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| By cape and fair Floridian bay, | 9 | ····˘/˘˘· |
| Twixt billowy pines -- a surf asleep on land -- | 11 | ·/˘˘···˘/·· |
| And the great Gulf at play, | 6 | ······ |
| Past far-off palms that filmed to nought, | 9 | ······˘·· |
| Or in and out the cunning keys | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| That laced the land like fragile patterns wrought | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| To edge old broideries, | 5 | ····· |
| The sail sighed on all day for joy, | 9 | ···˘····· |
| The prow each pouting wave did leave | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| All smile and song, with sheen and ripple coy, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Till the dusk diver Eve | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Brought up from out the brimming East | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The oval moon, a perfect pearl. | 8 | ·/˘··/·· |
| In that large lustre all our haste surceased, | 10 | ···/˘·/··· |
| The sail seemed fain to furl, | 6 | ······ |
| The silent steersman landward turned, | 9 | ·/˘/˘/˘·˘ |
| And ship and shore set breast to breast. | 8 | ········ |
| Under a palm wherethrough a planet burned | 10 | ····˘/·/˘· |
| We ate, and sank to rest. | 6 | ······ |
| But soon from sleep's dear death (it seemed) | 9 | ········˘ |
| I rose and strolled along the sea | 9 | ····˘˘/·· |
| Down silver distances that faintly gleamed | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘·/˘· |
| On to infinity. | 6 | ··˘/˘˘ |
| Till suddenly I paused, for lo! | 9 | ·/˘˘··˘·· |
| A shape (from whence I ne'er divined) | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| Appeared before me, pacing to and fro, | 10 | ˘/···/˘··· |
| With head far down inclined. | 6 | ····˘/ |
| `A wraith' (I thought) `that walks the shore | 8 | ········ |
| To solve some old perplexity.' | 8 | ····˘/˘˘ |
| Full heavy hung the draggled gown he wore; | 10 | ·/˘···˘··· |
| His hair flew all awry. | 6 | ····˘/ |
| He waited not (as ghosts oft use) | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| To be `dearheaven'd!' and `oh'd!' | 7 | ······· |
| But briskly said: "Good-evenin'; what's the news? | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| Consumption? After boa'd? | 6 | ˘/˘··· |
| "Or mebbe you're intendin' of | 7 | ······· |
| Investments? Orange-plantin'? Pine? | 8 | ˘/˘/˘··· |
| Hotel? or Sanitarium? What above | 10 | ˘/········ |
| This yea'th CAN be your line? | 6 | ······ |
| "Speakin' of sanitariums, now, | 8 | ········ |
| Jest look 'ee here, my friend: | 6 | ······ |
| I know a little story, -- well, I swow, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Wait till you hear the end! | 6 | ······ |
| "Some year or more ago, I s'pose, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| I roamed from Maine to Floridy, | 9 | ··˘······ |
| And, -- see where them Palmettos grows? | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| I bought that little key, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| "Cal'latin' for to build right off | 8 | ········ |
| A c'lossal sanitarium: | 7 | ······· |
| Big surf! Gulf breeze! Jest death upon a cough! | 10 | ·········· |
| -- I run it high, to hum! | 6 | ······ |
| "Well, sir, I went to work in style: | 8 | ········ |
| Bought me a steamboat, loaded it | 8 | ···/·/˘· |
| With my hotel (pyazers more'n a mile!) | 10 | ··˘/··/˘·· |
| Already framed and fit, | 6 | ˘/˘··· |
| "Insured 'em, fetched 'em safe around, | 10 | ˘/˘··˘···· |
| Put up my buildin', moored my boat, | 9 | ······˘·· |
| COM-plete! then went to bed and slept as sound | 10 | ·········· |
| As if I'd paid a note. | 6 | ······ |
| "Now on that very night a squall, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Cum up from some'eres -- some bad place! | 8 | ········ |
| An' blowed an' tore an' reared an' pitched an' all, | 10 | ·········· |
| -- I had to run a race | 6 | ······ |
| "Right out o' bed from that hotel | 8 | ······˘/ |
| An' git to yonder risin' ground, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| For, 'twixt the sea that riz and rain that fell, | 10 | ·········· |
| I pooty nigh was drowned! | 6 | ······ |
| "An' thar I stood till mornin' cum, | 8 | ········ |
| Right on yon little knoll of sand, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| FreQUENTly wishin' I had stayed to hum | 10 | /˘˘······· |
| Fur from this tarnal land. | 6 | ······ |
| "When mornin' cum, I took a good | 8 | ········ |
| Long look, and -- well, sir, sure's I'm ME -- | 8 | ········ |
| That boat laid right whar that hotel had stood, | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| And HIT sailed out to sea! | 6 | ······ |
| "No: I'll not keep you: good-bye, friend. | 8 | ········ |
| Don't think about it much, -- preehaps | 8 | ········ |
| Your brain might git see-sawin', end for end, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Like them asylum chaps, | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| "For here *I walk, forevermore, | 8 | ········ |
| A-tryin' to make it gee, | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| How one same wind could blow my ship to shore | 10 | ·········· |
| And my hotel to sea!" | 6 | ··˘/·· |
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