The Birch-Tree at Loschwitz
At Loschwitz above the cityThe air is sunny and chill;The birch-trees and the pine-treesGrow thick upon the hill.
Lone and tall, with silver stem,A birch-tree stands apart;The passionate wind of spring-timeStirs in its leafy heart.
I lean against the birch-tree,My arms around it twine;It pulses, and leaps, and quivers,Like a human heart to mine.
One moment I stand, then suddenLet loose mine arms that cling:O God! the lonely hillside,The passionate wind of spring!
Words in this poem
- sunny a.
- Of or pertaining to the sun; proceeding from, or resembling the sun; hence, shining; bright; brilliant; radiant.
- lone n.
- A lane. See Loanin.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Birch-Tree at Loschwitz 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, The Birch-Tree at Loschwitz, in A London Plane-Tree, and Other Verse (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56974, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/levy-london-plane-tree/the-birch-tree-at-loschwitz.html, id L21538.
Form and metre
The Birch-Tree at Loschwitz is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
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 -A-A city · chillA · trees · hillA
- 2 -A-A stem · apartA · time · heartA
- 3 -A-A tree · twineA · quivers · mineA
- 4 -A-A sudden · clingA · hillside · springA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| At Loschwitz above the city | 8 | ······/˘ |
| The air is sunny and chill; | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| The birch-trees and the pine-trees | 7 | ······· |
| Grow thick upon the hill. | 6 | ······ |
| Lone and tall, with silver stem, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| A birch-tree stands apart; | 6 | ····˘/ |
| The passionate wind of spring-time | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| Stirs in its leafy heart. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| I lean against the birch-tree, | 7 | ······· |
| My arms around it twine; | 6 | ······ |
| It pulses, and leaps, and quivers, | 8 | ·/˘···/˘ |
| Like a human heart to mine. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| One moment I stand, then sudden | 8 | ·/˘···/˘ |
| Let loose mine arms that cling: | 6 | ······ |
| O God! the lonely hillside, | 7 | ···/˘/· |
| The passionate wind of spring! | 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.