London in July
What ails my senses thus to cheat?What is it ails the place,That all the people in the streetShould wear one woman’s face?
The London trees are dusty-brownBeneath the summer sky;My love, she dwells in London town,Nor leaves it in July.
O various and intricate maze,Wide waste of square and street;Where, missing through unnumbered days,We twain at last may meet!
And who cries out on crowd and mart?Who prates of stream and sea?The summer in the city’s heart--That is enough for me.
Words in this poem
- maze n.
- A wild fancy; a confused notion. [OE. mase; cf. OE. masen to confuse, puzzle, Norweg. masast to fall into a slumber, masa to be continually busy, prate, chatter, Icel. masa to chatter, dial. Sw.]
- unnumbered a.
- Not numbered; not counted or estimated; innumerable.
- twain a.
- Two;- nearly obsolete in common discourse, but used in poetry and burlesque. [OE. twein, tweien, tweyne, AS. twegen, masc. See Two.]
- mart v. t.
- To buy or sell in, or as in, a mart.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
London in July 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, London in July, in A London Plane-Tree, and Other Verse (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56974, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/levy-london-plane-tree/london-in-july.html, id L21522.
Form and metre
London in July 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 93%).
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 cheatA · placeB · streetA · faceB
- 2 ABAB brownA · skyB · townA · julyB
- 3 ABAB mazeA · streetB · daysA · meetB
- 4 ABAB martA · seaB · heartA · meB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| What ails my senses thus to cheat? | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| What is it ails the place, | 6 | ······ |
| That all the people in the street | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Should wear one woman’s face? | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The London trees are dusty-brown | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Beneath the summer sky; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| My love, she dwells in London town, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Nor leaves it in July. | 6 | ·····/ |
| O various and intricate maze, | 8 | ·/˘·/˘˘· |
| Wide waste of square and street; | 6 | ······ |
| Where, missing through unnumbered days, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| We twain at last may meet! | 6 | ······ |
| And who cries out on crowd and mart? | 8 | ········ |
| Who prates of stream and sea? | 6 | ······ |
| The summer in the city’s heart-- | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| That is enough for me. | 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.