An Indian Summer Day on the Prairie
The sun is a huntress young,The sun is a red, red joy,The sun is an Indian girl,Of the tribe of the Illinois.
The sun is a smouldering fire,That creeps through the high gray plain,And leaves not a bush of cloudTo blossom with flowers of rain.
The sun is a wounded deer,That treads pale grass in the skies,Shaking his golden horns,Flashing his baleful eyes.
The sun is an eagle old,There in the windless west.Atop of the spirit-cliffsHe builds him a crimson nest.
Words in this poem
- huntress n.
- A woman who hunts or follows the chase; as, the huntress Diana.
- illinois n.
- A tribe of North American Indians, which formerly occupied the region between the Wabash and Mississippi rivers.
- smouldering a.
- Being in a state of suppressed activity; quiet but not dead.
- windless a.
- Having no wind; calm.
- atop adv.
- On or at the top.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
An Indian Summer Day on the Prairie is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Congo, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #1021; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Vachel Lindsay, An Indian Summer Day on the Prairie, in The Congo and Other Poems (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1021, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lindsay-congo/an-indian-summer-day-on-the-prairie.html, id L00953.
Form and metre
An Indian Summer Day on the Prairie is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.9 syllables. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 young · joyA · girl · illinoisA
- 2 -A-A fire · plainA · cloud · rainA
- 3 -A-A deer · skiesA · horns · eyesA
- 4 -A-A old · westA · cliffs · nestA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The sun is a huntress young, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| The sun is a red, red joy, | 7 | ······· |
| The sun is an Indian girl, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Of the tribe of the Illinois. | 8 | ······˘/ |
| The sun is a smouldering fire, | 8 | ·······/ |
| That creeps through the high gray plain, | 7 | ······· |
| And leaves not a bush of cloud | 7 | ······· |
| To blossom with flowers of rain. | 7 | ·/˘·/·· |
| The sun is a wounded deer, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| That treads pale grass in the skies, | 7 | ······· |
| Shaking his golden horns, | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| Flashing his baleful eyes. | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| The sun is an eagle old, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| There in the windless west. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Atop of the spirit-cliffs | 6 | ˘/··/· |
| He builds him a crimson nest. | 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.