The Birch-Tree
Rippling through thy branches goes the sunshine,Among thy leaves that palpitate forever;Ovid in thee a pining Nymph had prisoned,The soul once of some tremulous inland river,Quivering to tell her woe, but, ah! dumb, dumb forever!
While all the forest, witched with slumberous moonshine,Holds up its leaves in happy, happy silence,Waiting the dew, with breath and pulse suspended,--I hear afar thy whispering, gleamy islands,And track thee wakeful still amid the wide-hung silence.
Upon the brink of some wood-nestled lakelet,Thy foliage, like the tresses of a Dryad,Dripping about thy slim white stem, whose shadowSlopes quivering down the water's dusky quiet,Thou shrink'st as on her bath's edge would some startled Dryad.
Thou art the go-between of rustic lovers;Thy white bark has their secrets in its keeping;Reuben writes here the happy name of Patience,And thy lithe boughs hang murmuring and weepingAbove her, as she steals the mystery from thy keeping.
Thou art to me like my beloved maiden,So frankly coy, so full of trembly confidences;Thy shadow scarce seems shade, thy pattering leafletsSprinkle their gathered sunshine o'er my senses,And Nature gives me all her summer confidences.
Whether my heart with hope or sorrow tremble,Thou sympathizest still; wild and unquiet,I fling me down; thy ripple, like a river,Flows valleyward, where calmness is, and by itMy heart is floated down into the land of quiet.
Words in this poem 15
- sunshine n.
- The light of the sun, or the place where it shines; the direct rays of the sun, the place where they fall, or the warmth and light which they give.
- slumberous a.
- Inviting slumber; soporiferous.
- moonshine n.
- The light of the moon.
- afar adv.
- At, to, or from a great distance; far away; -- often used with from preceding, or off following; as, he was seen from afar; I saw him afar off. [Pref. a-.(for on or of) + far.]
- gleamy a.
- Darting beams of light; casting light in rays; flashing; coruscating.
- wakeful a.
- Not sleeping; indisposed to sleep; watchful; vigilant.
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- brink n.
- The edge, margin, or border of a steep place, as of a precipice; a bank or edge, as of a river or pit; a verge; a border; as, the brink of a chasm. Also Fig. [Dan. brink edge, verge; akin to Sw. brink declivity, hill, Icel. brekka; cf. LG. brink a grassy hill, W. bryn hill, bryncyn hillock.]
- lakelet n.
- A little lake. Southey.
- dryad n.
- A wood nymph; a nymph whose life was bound up with that of her tree. [L. dryas, pl. dryades, Gr. Tree.]
- dripping n.
- A falling in drops, or the sound so made.
- lithe v. i.
- To listen or listen to; to hearken to. P. Plowman. [Icel Listen.]
- frankly adv.
- In a frank manner; freely.
- scarce a.
- Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
- unquiet v. t.
- To disquiet. Ld. Herbert. [1st pref. un- + quiet.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Birch-Tree is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems of James Russell Lowell With biographical sketch by Nathan Haskell Dole, Project Gutenberg ebook #38520; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: James Russell Lowell, The Birch-Tree, in Poems (1844–1888), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #38520, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lowell-james-russell-poems/the-birch-tree.html, id L13716.
Form and metre
The Birch-Tree is 30 lines in 6 stanzas of 5 lines each. The metre is iambic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 11.2 syllables. 24 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 13% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic hexameter.
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 sunshine · foreverA · prisoned · river · foreverA
- 2 -A--A moonshine · silenceA · suspended · islands · silenceA
- 3 -A--A lakelet · dryadA · shadow · quiet · dryadA
- 4 -A-AA lovers · keepingA · patience · weepingA · keepingA
- 5 -A--A maiden · confidencesA · leaflets · senses · confidencesA
- 6 -A-AA tremble · unquietA · river · itA · quietA
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 hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Rippling through thy branches goes the sunshine, | 10 | /˘··/˘··/· |
| Among thy leaves that palpitate forever; | 11 | ·····/˘˘˘/˘ |
| Ovid in thee a pining Nymph had prisoned, | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| The soul once of some tremulous inland river, | 11 | ·····/˘/·/˘ |
| Quivering to tell her woe, but, ah! dumb, dumb forever! | 13 | /˘········˘/˘ |
| While all the forest, witched with slumberous moonshine, | 12 | ···/˘··/˘˘/· |
| Holds up its leaves in happy, happy silence, | 11 | ·····/˘/˘/˘ |
| Waiting the dew, with breath and pulse suspended,-- | 11 | /˘······˘/˘ |
| I hear afar thy whispering, gleamy islands, | 11 | ··˘/·/˘/˘/˘ |
| And track thee wakeful still amid the wide-hung silence. | 13 | ···/˘·˘/···/˘ |
| Upon the brink of some wood-nestled lakelet, | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| Thy foliage, like the tresses of a Dryad, | 11 | ·/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| Dripping about thy slim white stem, whose shadow | 11 | /˘·······/· |
| Slopes quivering down the water's dusky quiet, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘/ |
| Thou shrink'st as on her bath's edge would some startled Dryad. | 13 | ·········/˘/˘ |
| Thou art the go-between of rustic lovers; | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| Thy white bark has their secrets in its keeping; | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| Reuben writes here the happy name of Patience, | 11 | /˘···/˘··/˘ |
| And thy lithe boughs hang murmuring and weeping | 11 | ·····/˘˘·/˘ |
| Above her, as she steals the mystery from thy keeping. | 13 | ·······/˘··/˘ |
| Thou art to me like my beloved maiden, | 10 | ······˘//˘ |
| So frankly coy, so full of trembly confidences; | 11 | ·/˘····/˘/˘ |
| Thy shadow scarce seems shade, thy pattering leaflets | 11 | ·/·····/˘/˘ |
| Sprinkle their gathered sunshine o'er my senses, | 11 | /˘·/˘/···/˘ |
| And Nature gives me all her summer confidences. | 11 | ·/˘····/˘/˘ |
| Whether my heart with hope or sorrow tremble, | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| Thou sympathizest still; wild and unquiet, | 11 | ·/˘·˘···˘/˘ |
| I fling me down; thy ripple, like a river, | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| Flows valleyward, where calmness is, and by it | 11 | ·····/˘···· |
| My heart is floated down into the land of quiet. | 12 | ···/˘······/ |
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.