On the Wye in May
Now is the perfect moment of the year.Half naked branches, half a mist of green,Vivid and delicate the slopes appear;The cool, soft air is neither fierce nor keen,
And in the temperate sun we feel no fear;Of all the hours which shall be and have been,It is the briefest as it is most dear,It is the dearest as the shortest seen.
O it was best, belovèd, at the first.--Our hands met gently, and our meeting sightWas steady; on our senses scare had burstThe faint, fresh fragrance of the new delight....
I seek that clime, unknown, without a name,Where first and best and last shall be the same.
O Is it Love or is it Fame,This thing for which I sigh?Or has it then no earthly nameFor men to call it by?
I know not what can ease my pains,Nor what it is I wish;The passion at my heart-strings strainsLike a tiger in a leash.
Words in this poem
- 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,]
- scare v. t.
- To frighten; to strike with sudden fear; to alarm. [OE. skerren, skeren, Icel. skirra to bar, prevent, skirrask to shun , shrink from; or fr. OE. skerre, adj., scared, Icel. skjarr; both perhaps akin to E. sheer ]
- clime n.
- A climate; a tract or region of the earth. See Climate. [L. clima. See Climate.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
On the Wye in May 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, On the Wye in May, in A London Plane-Tree, and Other Verse (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56974, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/levy-london-plane-tree/on-the-wye-in-may.html, id L21561.
Form and metre
On the Wye in May is 22 lines in 6 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 3 of its 6 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 yearA · greenB · appearA · keenB
- 2 A-A- fearA · been · dearA · seen
- 3 ABAB firstA · sightB · burstA · delightB
- 4 AA nameA · sameA
- 5 ABAB fameA · sighB · nameA · byB
- 6 A-A- painsA · wish · strainsA · leash
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Now is the perfect moment of the year. | 10 | ···/·/˘··· |
| Half naked branches, half a mist of green, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Vivid and delicate the slopes appear; | 9 | /˘·/˘··˘/ |
| The cool, soft air is neither fierce nor keen, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And in the temperate sun we feel no fear; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Of all the hours which shall be and have been, | 10 | ···/······ |
| It is the briefest as it is most dear, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| It is the dearest as the shortest seen. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| O it was best, belovèd, at the first.-- | 9 | ········· |
| Our hands met gently, and our meeting sight | 10 | /··/˘·//˘· |
| Was steady; on our senses scare had burst | 10 | ·/˘·//˘··· |
| The faint, fresh fragrance of the new delight.... | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| I seek that clime, unknown, without a name, | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| Where first and best and last shall be the same. | 10 | ·········· |
| O Is it Love or is it Fame, | 8 | ········ |
| This thing for which I sigh? | 6 | ······ |
| Or has it then no earthly name | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| For men to call it by? | 6 | ······ |
| I know not what can ease my pains, | 8 | ········ |
| Nor what it is I wish; | 6 | ······ |
| The passion at my heart-strings strains | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Like a tiger in a leash. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
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.