May
Hark! The sea-faring wild-fowl loud proclaimMy coming, and the swarming of the bees.These are my heralds, and behold! my nameIs written in blossoms on the hawthorn-trees.I tell the mariner when to sail the seas;I waft o'er all the land from far awayThe breath and bloom of the Hesperides,My birthplace. I am Maia. I am May.
Words in this poem
- waft v. t.
- To give notice to by waving something; to wave the hand to; to beckon. [Prob. originally imp. & p. p. of wave, v. t. See Wave to waver.]
- birthplace n.
- The town, city, or country, where a person is born; place of origin or birth, in its more general sense.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
May 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, May, in The Complete Poetical Works (1839–1882), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1365, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/longfellow-poems/may.html, id L17819.
Form and metre
May is 8 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 38% 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 ABABBC-C proclaimA · beesB · nameA · treesB · seasB · awayC · hesperides · mayC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Hark! The sea-faring wild-fowl loud proclaim | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| My coming, and the swarming of the bees. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| These are my heralds, and behold! my name | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| Is written in blossoms on the hawthorn-trees. | 11 | ·/˘·/˘··/·· |
| I tell the mariner when to sail the seas; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| I waft o'er all the land from far away | 10 | ········˘/ |
| The breath and bloom of the Hesperides, | 10 | ······˘/˘˘ |
| My birthplace. I am Maia. I am May. | 10 | ·/···/˘··· |
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.