A London Plane-Tree
Green is the plane-tree in the square,The other trees are brown;They droop and pine for country air;The plane-tree loves the town.
Here from my garret-pane, I markThe plane-tree bud and blow,Shed her recuperative bark,And spread her shade below.
Among her branches, in and out,The city breezes play;The dun fog wraps her round about;Above, the smoke curls grey.
Others the country take for choice,And hold the town in scorn;But she has listened to the voiceOn city breezes borne.
Words in this poem
- garret n.
- A turret; a watchtower. [OE. garite, garette, watchtower, place of lookout, OF. garite, also meaning, a place of refuge, F. guérite a place of refuge, donjon, sentinel box, fr. OF. gari]
- pane n.
- The narrow edge of a hammer head. See Peen. [F. panne.]
- recuperative a.
- Of or pertaining to recuperation; tending to recovery. [L. recuperativus, recuperatorius.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A London Plane-Tree 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 London Plane-Tree, 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-london-plane-tree.html, id L21521.
Form and metre
A London Plane-Tree is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
See other poems in common measure.
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 squareA · brownB · airA · townB
- 2 ABAB markA · blowB · barkA · belowB
- 3 ABAB outA · playB · aboutA · greyB
- 4 ABAB choiceA · scornB · voiceA · borneB
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Green is the plane-tree in the square, | 8 | ········ |
| The other trees are brown; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| They droop and pine for country air; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The plane-tree loves the town. | 6 | ······ |
| Here from my garret-pane, I mark | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The plane-tree bud and blow, | 6 | ······ |
| Shed her recuperative bark, | 8 | ··˘/˘˘˘· |
| And spread her shade below. | 6 | ······ |
| Among her branches, in and out, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The city breezes play; | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| The dun fog wraps her round about; | 8 | ········ |
| Above, the smoke curls grey. | 6 | ······ |
| Others the country take for choice, | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| And hold the town in scorn; | 6 | ······ |
| But she has listened to the voice | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| On city breezes borne. | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
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.