On the Garden-wall
Oh, once I walked a gardenIn dreams. 'Twas yellow grass.And many orange-trees grew thereIn sand as white as glass.The curving, wide wall-borderWas marble, like the snow.I walked that wall a fairy-princeAnd, pacing quaint and slow,Beside me were my pages,Two giant, friendly birds.Half-swan they were, half peacock.They spake in courtier-words.Their inner wings a chariot,Their outer wings for flight,They lifted me from dreamland.We bade those trees good-night.Swiftly above the stars we rode.I looked below me soon.The white-walled garden I had ruledWas one lone flower--the moon.
Words in this poem
- quaint a.
- Prudent; wise; hence, crafty; artful; wily. [OE. queint, queynte, coint, prudent, wise, cunning, pretty, odd, OF. cointe cultivated, amiable, agreeable, neat, fr. L. cognitus known, p. p. of cognoscere to ]
- dreamland n.
- An unreal, delightful country such as in sometimes pictured in dreams; region of fancies; fairyland.
- bade
- A form of the pat tense of Bid.
- rode n.
- Redness; complexion. [See Rud.]
- lone n.
- A lane. See Loanin.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
On the Garden-wall 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, On the Garden-wall, in The Congo and Other Poems (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1021, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lindsay-congo/on-the-garden-wall.html, id L00985.
Form and metre
On the Garden-wall is 20 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.7 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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-B-B-C-CDD-D-E-E garden · grassA · there · glassA · border · snowB · prince · slowB · pages · birdsC · peacock · wordsC · chariotD · flightD · dreamland · nightD · rode · soonE · ruled · moonE
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Oh, once I walked a garden | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| In dreams. 'Twas yellow grass. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And many orange-trees grew there | 7 | ·//˘··· |
| In sand as white as glass. | 6 | ······ |
| The curving, wide wall-border | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| Was marble, like the snow. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| I walked that wall a fairy-prince | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And, pacing quaint and slow, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Beside me were my pages, | 7 | ˘/···/˘ |
| Two giant, friendly birds. | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Half-swan they were, half peacock. | 7 | ·····/· |
| They spake in courtier-words. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Their inner wings a chariot, | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| Their outer wings for flight, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| They lifted me from dreamland. | 7 | ·/˘··/· |
| We bade those trees good-night. | 6 | ······ |
| Swiftly above the stars we rode. | 8 | /˘······ |
| I looked below me soon. | 6 | ······ |
| The white-walled garden I had ruled | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Was one lone flower--the moon. | 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.