The Hemlock Tree
O hemlock tree! O hemlock tree! how faithful are thy branches!Green not alone in summer time,But in the winter's frost and rime!O hemlock tree! O hemlock tree! how faithful are thy branches!
O maiden fair! O maiden fair! how faithless is thy bosom!To love me in prosperity,And leave me in adversity!O maiden fair! O maiden fair! how faithless is thy bosom!
The nightingale, the nightingale, thou tak'st for thine example!So long as summer laughs she sings,But in the autumn spreads her wings.The nightingale, the nightingale, thou tak'st for thine example!
The meadow brook, the meadow brook, is mirror of thy falsehood!It flows so long as falls the rain,In drought its springs soon dry again.The meadow brook, the meadow brook, is mirror of thy falsehood!
Words in this poem
- rime n.
- A rent or long aperture; a chink; a fissure; a crack. Sir T. [L. rima.]
- adversity n.
- Opposition; contrariety. Wyclif. [OE. adversite, F. adversité, fr. L. adversitas.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Hemlock Tree 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, The Hemlock Tree, in The Complete Poetical Works (1839–1882), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1365, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/longfellow-poems/the-hemlock-tree.html, id L18059.
Form and metre
The Hemlock Tree is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABBA, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic heptameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 11.2 syllables. 8 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in iambic heptameter.
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 ABBA branchesA · timeB · rimeB · branchesA
- 2 A--A bosomA · prosperity · adversity · bosomA
- 3 ABBA exampleA · singsB · wingsB · exampleA
- 4 ABBA falsehoodA · rainB · againB · falsehoodA
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 heptameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| O hemlock tree! O hemlock tree! how faithful are thy branches! | 15 | ·/···/···/˘··/˘ |
| Green not alone in summer time, | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| But in the winter's frost and rime! | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| O hemlock tree! O hemlock tree! how faithful are thy branches! | 15 | ·/···/···/˘··/˘ |
| O maiden fair! O maiden fair! how faithless is thy bosom! | 15 | ·/˘··/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| To love me in prosperity, | 8 | ····˘/˘˘ |
| And leave me in adversity! | 8 | ····˘/˘˘ |
| O maiden fair! O maiden fair! how faithless is thy bosom! | 15 | ·/˘··/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| The nightingale, the nightingale, thou tak'st for thine example! | 13 | ·/˘·/˘····˘/˘ |
| So long as summer laughs she sings, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| But in the autumn spreads her wings. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The nightingale, the nightingale, thou tak'st for thine example! | 13 | ·/˘·/˘····˘/˘ |
| The meadow brook, the meadow brook, is mirror of thy falsehood! | 15 | ·/···/···/˘··/· |
| It flows so long as falls the rain, | 8 | ········ |
| In drought its springs soon dry again. | 8 | ······˘/ |
| The meadow brook, the meadow brook, is mirror of thy falsehood! | 15 | ·/···/···/˘··/· |
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.