A Game of Lawn Tennis
What wonder that I should be dreamingOut here in the garden to-day?The light through the leaves is streaming,--Paulina cries, “Play!”
The birds to each other are calling,The freshly-cut grasses smell sweet;To Teddy’s dismay, comes fallingThe ball at my feet.
“Your stroke should be over, not under!”“But that’s such a difficult way!”The place is a springtide wonderOf lilac and may;
Of lilac, and may, and laburnum,Of blossom,--We’er losing the set!“Those volleys of Jenny’s,--return them;“Stand close to the net!”
You are so fond of the Maytime,My friend, far away;Small wonder that I should be dreamingOf you in the garden to-day.
Words in this poem
- streaming a.
- Sending forth streams.
- springtide n.
- The time of spring; springtime. Thomson.
- laburnum n.
- A small leguminous tree (Cytisus Laburnum), native of the Alps. [L.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Game of Lawn Tennis is in the public domain. This text is taken from A London Plane-Tree, and Other Verse, Project Gutenberg ebook #56974; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Amy Levy, A Game of Lawn Tennis, in A London Plane-Tree, and Other Verse (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56974, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/levy-london-plane-tree/a-game-of-lawn-tennis.html, id L21568.
Form and metre
A Game of Lawn Tennis is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The commonest rhyme scheme is ABAB, in 2 of the 5 stanzas; the rest vary or could not be confirmed. The metre is anapaestic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%).
See other poems in anapaestic trimeter.
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 dreamingA · dayB · streamingA · playB
- 2 -A-A calling · sweetA · falling · feetA
- 3 ABAB underA · wayB · wonderA · mayB
- 4 -A-A laburnum · setA · them · netA
- 5 -A-A maytime · awayA · dreaming · dayA
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 anapaestic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| What wonder that I should be dreaming | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| Out here in the garden to-day? | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| The light through the leaves is streaming,-- | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Paulina cries, “Play!” | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| The birds to each other are calling, | 9 | ····/˘·/˘ |
| The freshly-cut grasses smell sweet; | 8 | ·/˘·/˘·· |
| To Teddy’s dismay, comes falling | 8 | ·/˘˘/·/˘ |
| The ball at my feet. | 5 | ····· |
| “Your stroke should be over, not under!” | 8 | ········ |
| “But that’s such a difficult way!” | 8 | ····/˘˘· |
| The place is a springtide wonder | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Of lilac and may; | 5 | ·/··· |
| Of lilac, and may, and laburnum, | 9 | ·/····˘/˘ |
| Of blossom,--We’er losing the set! | 8 | ·/˘·/˘·· |
| “Those volleys of Jenny’s,--return them; | 9 | ·/˘·/˘˘/· |
| “Stand close to the net!” | 5 | ····· |
| You are so fond of the Maytime, | 8 | ········ |
| My friend, far away; | 5 | ···˘/ |
| Small wonder that I should be dreaming | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| Of you in the garden to-day. | 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.