The Spice-tree
This is the songThe spice-tree sings:"Hunger and fire,Hunger and fire,Sky-born Beauty--Spice of desire,"Under the spice-treeWatch and wait,Burning maidensAnd lads that mate.
The spice-tree spreadsAnd its boughs come downShadowing village and farm and town.And none can seeBut the pure of heartThe great green leavesAnd the boughs descending,And hear the song that is never ending.
The deep roots whisper,The branches say:--"Love to-morrow,And love to-day,And till Heaven's day,And till Heaven's day."
The moon is a bird's nest in its branches,The moon is hung in its topmost spaces.And there, to-night, two doves play houseWhile lovers watch with uplifted faces.Two doves go homeTo their nest, the moon.It is woven of twigs of broken light,With threads of scarlet and threads of grayAnd a lining of down for silk delight.To their Eden, the moon, fly home our doves,Up through the boughs of the great spice-tree;--And one is the kiss I took from you,And one is the kiss you gave to me.
Words in this poem
- shadowing n.
- Shade, or gradation of light and color; shading. Feltham.
- eden n.
- The garden where Adam and Eve first dwelt; hence, a delightful region or residence. [Heb. eden delight, pleasure; also, a place of pleasure, Eden.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Spice-tree 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, The Spice-tree, in The Congo and Other Poems (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1021, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lindsay-congo/the-spice-tree.html, id L00993.
Form and metre
The Spice-tree is 37 lines in 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.1 syllables. 12 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 30% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic dimeter.
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 --AA-A-B-B song · sings · fireA · fireA · beauty · desireA · tree · waitB · maidens · mateB
- 2 -AA---BB spreads · downA · townA · see · heart · leaves · descendingB · endingB
- 3 -A-AAA whisper · sayA · morrow · dayA · dayA · dayA
- 4 -A-A--B-B-C-C branches · spacesA · house · facesA · home · moon · lightB · gray · delightB · doves · treeC · you · meC
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 dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| This is the song | 4 | ···· |
| The spice-tree sings: | 4 | ···· |
| "Hunger and fire, | 5 | /˘·/˘ |
| Hunger and fire, | 5 | /˘·/˘ |
| Sky-born Beauty-- | 4 | ··/˘ |
| Spice of desire," | 5 | ··˘/˘ |
| Under the spice-tree | 5 | ····· |
| Watch and wait, | 3 | ··· |
| Burning maidens | 4 | /˘/˘ |
| And lads that mate. | 4 | ···· |
| The spice-tree spreads | 4 | ···· |
| And its boughs come down | 5 | ····· |
| Shadowing village and farm and town. | 8 | /˘/˘···· |
| And none can see | 4 | ···· |
| But the pure of heart | 5 | ····· |
| The great green leaves | 4 | ···· |
| And the boughs descending, | 6 | ···˘/˘ |
| And hear the song that is never ending. | 9 | ······//˘ |
| The deep roots whisper, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| The branches say:-- | 4 | ·/˘· |
| "Love to-morrow, | 4 | ··/˘ |
| And love to-day, | 4 | ···· |
| And till Heaven's day, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| And till Heaven's day." | 5 | ··/˘· |
| The moon is a bird's nest in its branches, | 10 | ········/˘ |
| The moon is hung in its topmost spaces. | 10 | ······/˘/˘ |
| And there, to-night, two doves play house | 8 | ········ |
| While lovers watch with uplifted faces. | 9 | ·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Two doves go home | 4 | ···· |
| To their nest, the moon. | 5 | ····· |
| It is woven of twigs of broken light, | 10 | ··/˘···/˘· |
| With threads of scarlet and threads of gray | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| And a lining of down for silk delight. | 10 | ··/˘····˘/ |
| To their Eden, the moon, fly home our doves, | 10 | ··/˘····/· |
| Up through the boughs of the great spice-tree;-- | 9 | ········· |
| And one is the kiss I took from you, | 9 | ········· |
| And one is the kiss you gave to me. | 9 | ········· |
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.