To J. De P
Deep in the grass outstretched I lie,Motionless on the hill;Above me is a cloudless sky,Around me all is still:
There is no breath, no sound, no stir,The drowsy peace to break;I close my tired eyes--it wereSo simple not to wake.
Words in this poem
- cloudless a.
- Without a cloud; clear; bright.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To J. De P 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 J. De P, 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-j-de-p.html, id L21562.
Form and metre
To J. De P is 8 lines in 2 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 lieA · hillB · skyA · stillB
- 2 ABAB stirA · breakB · wereA · wakeB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Deep in the grass outstretched I lie, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Motionless on the hill; | 6 | /˘˘··· |
| Above me is a cloudless sky, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Around me all is still: | 6 | ······ |
| There is no breath, no sound, no stir, | 8 | ········ |
| The drowsy peace to break; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| I close my tired eyes--it were | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| So simple not to wake. | 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.