July
My emblem is the Lion, and I breatheThe breath of Libyan deserts o'er the land;My sickle as a sabre I unsheathe,And bent before me the pale harvests stand.The lakes and rivers shrink at my command,And there is thirst and fever in the air;The sky is changed to brass, the earth to sand;I am the Emperor whose name I bear.
Words in this poem
- libyan a.
- Of or pertaining to Libya, the ancient name of that part of Africa between Egypt and the Atlantic Ocean, or of Africa as a whole.
- sabre n.
- A sword with a broad and heavy blade, thick at the back, and usually more or less curved like a scimiter; a cavalry sword. Saber fish, or Sabre fish (Zoöl.), the cutlass fish.
- unsheathe v. t.
- To deprive of a sheath; to draw from the sheath or scabbard, as a sword. To unsheathe the sword, to make war. [1st pref. un- + sheath.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
July is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Project Gutenberg ebook #1365; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, July, in The Complete Poetical Works (1839–1882), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1365, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/longfellow-poems/july.html, id L17821.
Form and metre
July is 8 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABBCBC. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 ABABBCBC breatheA · landB · unsheatheA · standB · commandB · airC · sandB · bearC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| My emblem is the Lion, and I breathe | 9 | ·/˘··/··· |
| The breath of Libyan deserts o'er the land; | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| My sickle as a sabre I unsheathe, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| And bent before me the pale harvests stand. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The lakes and rivers shrink at my command, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| And there is thirst and fever in the air; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| The sky is changed to brass, the earth to sand; | 10 | ·········· |
| I am the Emperor whose name I bear. | 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.