Rose-Morals
Would that my songs might beWhat roses make by day and night --Distillments of my clod of miseryInto delight.
Soul, could'st thou bare thy breastAs yon red rose, and dare the day,All clean, and large, and calm with velvet rest?Say yea -- say yea!
Ah, dear my Rose, good-bye;The wind is up; so; drift away.That songs from me as leaves from thee may fly,I strive, I pray.
Soul, get thee to the heartOf yonder tuberose: hide thee there --There breathe the meditations of thine artSuffused with prayer.
Of spirit grave yet light,How fervent fragrances uprisePure-born from these most rich and yet most whiteVirginities!
Mulched with unsavory death,Grow, Soul! unto such white estate,That virginal-prayerful art shall be thy breath,Thy work, thy fate.
Words in this poem
- clod n.
- A lump or mass, especially of earth, turf, or clay. [OE. clodde, latter form of clot. See Clot.]
- yonder adv.
- At a distance, but within view. [OE. yonder, ýonder; cf. OD. ginder, Goth. jaindr there. Yond, adv.]
- tuberose n.
- A plant (Polianthes tuberosa) with a tuberous root and a liliaceous flower. It is much cultivated for its beautiful and fragrant white blossoms. [Cf. G. tuberose, F. tubéreuse, NL. Polianthes tuberosa. See Tuberous.]
- fervent a.
- Hot; glowing; boiling; burning; as, a fervent summer. [F. fervent, L. fervens, -entis. p.pr. of fervere o the boiling hot, to boil, glow.]
- uprise v. i.
- To rise; to get up; to appear from below the horizon.
- virginal a.
- Of or pertaining to a virgin; becoming a virgin; maidenly. [L. virginalis: cf. F. virginal.]
- prayerful a.
- Given to prayer; praying much or often; devotional.
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Rose-Morals 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, Rose-Morals, in Poems (1884), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #579, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lanier-poems/rose-morals.html, id L07623.
Form and metre
Rose-Morals is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 4 of its 6 stanzas. 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.0 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 29% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 -A-A be · nightA · misery · delightA
- 2 ABAB breastA · dayB · restA · yeaB
- 3 ABAB byeA · awayB · flyA · prayB
- 4 ABAB heartA · thereB · artA · prayerB
- 5 A-A- lightA · uprise · whiteA · virginities
- 6 ABAB deathA · estateB · breathA · fateB
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Would that my songs might be | 6 | ······ |
| What roses make by day and night -- | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Distillments of my clod of misery | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| Into delight. | 4 | ··˘/ |
| Soul, could'st thou bare thy breast | 6 | ······ |
| As yon red rose, and dare the day, | 8 | ········ |
| All clean, and large, and calm with velvet rest? | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Say yea -- say yea! | 4 | ···· |
| Ah, dear my Rose, good-bye; | 6 | ······ |
| The wind is up; so; drift away. | 8 | ······˘/ |
| That songs from me as leaves from thee may fly, | 10 | ·········· |
| I strive, I pray. | 4 | ···· |
| Soul, get thee to the heart | 6 | ······ |
| Of yonder tuberose: hide thee there -- | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| There breathe the meditations of thine art | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Suffused with prayer. | 4 | ˘/·· |
| Of spirit grave yet light, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| How fervent fragrances uprise | 8 | ·/˘/˘˘/˘ |
| Pure-born from these most rich and yet most white | 10 | ·········· |
| Virginities! | 4 | ˘/˘˘ |
| Mulched with unsavory death, | 7 | ··˘/˘˘· |
| Grow, Soul! unto such white estate, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| That virginal-prayerful art shall be thy breath, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Thy work, thy fate. | 4 | ···· |
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.