The Tree of Scarlet Berries
The rain gullies the garden pathsAnd tinkles on the broad sides of grass blades.A tree, at the end of my arm, is hazy with mist.Even so, I can see that it has red berries,A scarlet fruit,Filmed over with moisture.It seems as though the rain,Dripping from it,Should be tinged with colour.I desire the berries,But, in the mist, I only scratch my hand on the thorns.Probably, too, they are bitter.
Words in this poem
- hazy a.
- Thick with haze; somewhat obscured with haze; not clear or transparent. [From Haze, n.]
- dripping n.
- A falling in drops, or the sound so made.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Tree of Scarlet Berries is in the public domain. This text is taken from Sword Blades and Poppy Seed, Project Gutenberg ebook #1020; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Amy Lowell, The Tree of Scarlet Berries, in Sword Blades and Poppy Seed (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1020, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lowell-amy-sword-blades/the-tree-of-scarlet-berries.html, id L08225.
Form and metre
The Tree of Scarlet Berries is 12 lines in a single stanza. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter. 88% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 8% 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-- paths · blades · mist · berriesA · fruit · moisture · rain · it · colour · berriesA · thorns · bitter
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The rain gullies the garden paths | 8 | ··/˘·/˘· |
| And tinkles on the broad sides of grass blades. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| A tree, at the end of my arm, is hazy with mist. | 13 | ·········/˘·· |
| Even so, I can see that it has red berries, | 11 | /········/˘ |
| A scarlet fruit, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Filmed over with moisture. | 6 | ····/˘ |
| It seems as though the rain, | 6 | ······ |
| Dripping from it, | 4 | /˘·· |
| Should be tinged with colour. | 6 | ····/˘ |
| I desire the berries, | 7 | ·˘/˘·/˘ |
| But, in the mist, I only scratch my hand on the thorns. | 13 | ·····/˘······ |
| Probably, too, they are bitter. | 8 | /˘˘···/˘ |
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.