To E. M. S
Here, where your garden fenced about and still is,Here, where the unmoved summer air is sweetWith mixed delight of lavender and lilies,Dreaming I linger in the noontide heat.
Of many summers are the trees recorders,The turf a carpet many summers wove;Old-fashioned blossoms cluster in the borders,Love-in-a-mist and crimson-hearted clove.
All breathes of peace and sunshine in the present,All tells of bygone peace and bygone sun,Of fruitful years accomplished, budding, crescent,Of gentle seasons passing one by one.
Fain would I bide, but ever in the distanceA ceaseless voice is sounding clear and low;--The city calls me with her old persistence,The city calls me--I arise and go.
Of gentler souls this fragrant peace is guerdon;For me, the roar and hurry of the town,Wherein more lightly seems to press the burdenOf individual life that weighs me down.
I leave your garden to the happier comersFor whom its silent sweets are anodyne.Shall I return? Who knows, in other summersThe peace my spirit longs for may be mine?
Ah Love! could you and I with Him conspireTo grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire,Would not we shatter it to bits--and thenRe-mould it nearer to the Heart’s Desire!
Words in this poem
- unmoved a.
- Not moved; fixed; firm; unshaken; calm; apathetic.
- noontide n.
- The time of noon; midday. [From noon + tide time; cf. AS. n the ninth hour.]
- wove
- p. pr. & rare vb. n. of Weave.
- sunshine n.
- The light of the sun, or the place where it shines; the direct rays of the sun, the place where they fall, or the warmth and light which they give.
- bygone n.
- Something gone by or past; a past event.
- fain v. t.
- To be glad ; to wish or desire.
- bide v. i.
- To dwell; to inhabit; to abide; to stay. [OE. biden, AS. bidan; akin to OHG. bitan, Goth. beidan, Icel. bi; perh. orig., to wait with trust, and akin to bid. See Bid, v. t., and cf. Abide.]
- ceaseless a.
- Without pause or end; incessant.
- guerdon n.
- A reward; requital; recompense; -- used in both a good and a bad sense. [OF. guerdon, guerredon, LL. widerdonum (influenced by L. donum gift, cf. Donation ), fr. OHG. widarl; widar again, against (G. wider wieder) + lon reward, G. lo]
- 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,]
- mould n.
- Crumbling, soft, friable earth; esp., earth containing the remains or constituents of organic matter, and suited to the growth of plants; soil. [OE. molde, AS. molde; akin to D. mul, G. mull, mulm, OHG. molt, molta, Icel. mold, Dan. muld, Sw. mull, Goth. mulda, and E. meal flour. See Meal, and cf. Mole a]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To E. M. S 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, To E. M. S, in A London Plane-Tree, and Other Verse (1889), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56974, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/levy-london-plane-tree/to-e-m-s.html, id L21531.
Form and metre
To E. M. S is 28 lines in 7 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 4 of its 7 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
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 isA · sweetB · liliesA · heatB
- 2 A-A- recordersA · wove · bordersA · clove
- 3 -A-A present · sunA · crescent · oneA
- 4 ABAB distanceA · lowB · persistenceA · goB
- 5 ABAB guerdonA · townB · burdenA · downB
- 6 ABAB comersA · anodyneB · summersA · mineB
- 7 AA-A conspireA · entireA · then · desireA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Here, where your garden fenced about and still is, | 11 | ···/˘······ |
| Here, where the unmoved summer air is sweet | 11 | ···˘/˘/˘··· |
| With mixed delight of lavender and lilies, | 11 | ··˘/·/˘˘·/˘ |
| Dreaming I linger in the noontide heat. | 10 | /˘·/˘··/˘· |
| Of many summers are the trees recorders, | 11 | ·/˘/˘···˘/˘ |
| The turf a carpet many summers wove; | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| Old-fashioned blossoms cluster in the borders, | 11 | ·/˘/˘/˘··/˘ |
| Love-in-a-mist and crimson-hearted clove. | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| All breathes of peace and sunshine in the present, | 11 | ·····/···/˘ |
| All tells of bygone peace and bygone sun, | 10 | ···/···/·· |
| Of fruitful years accomplished, budding, crescent, | 11 | ·/˘·˘/˘/˘/˘ |
| Of gentle seasons passing one by one. | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| Fain would I bide, but ever in the distance | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| A ceaseless voice is sounding clear and low;-- | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| The city calls me with her old persistence, | 11 | ·/˘·····˘/˘ |
| The city calls me--I arise and go. | 10 | ·/˘···˘/·· |
| Of gentler souls this fragrant peace is guerdon; | 11 | ·/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| For me, the roar and hurry of the town, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Wherein more lightly seems to press the burden | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
| Of individual life that weighs me down. | 11 | ··˘/˘˘····· |
| I leave your garden to the happier comers | 12 | ···/˘··/˘˘/˘ |
| For whom its silent sweets are anodyne. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘˘ |
| Shall I return? Who knows, in other summers | 11 | ··˘/···/˘/˘ |
| The peace my spirit longs for may be mine? | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Ah Love! could you and I with Him conspire | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| To grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire, | 11 | ···/˘···˘/˘ |
| Would not we shatter it to bits--and then | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Re-mould it nearer to the Heart’s Desire! | 11 | ···/˘···˘/˘ |
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.