At Dawn
Just then the branches lightly stirred....See, out o’ the apple boughs a birdBursts music-mad into the blue abyss:Rothschild would give his gold for this--The wealth of nations, if he knew:(And find a profit in the business, too.)
O friend, we never choose the better part,Until we set the Cross up in the heart.I know I can not live until I die--Till I am nailed upon it wild and high,And sleep in the tomb for a full three days dead,With angels at the feet and at the head.But then in a great brightness I shall riseTo walk with stiller feet below the skies.
Words in this poem
- wealth n.
- Weal; welfare; prosperity; good. [OE. welthe, from wele; cf. D. weelde luxury. See Weal prosperity.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- stiller n.
- One who stills, or quiets.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
At Dawn is in the public domain. This text is taken from The man with the hoe, and other poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #67012; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edwin Markham, At Dawn, in The Man with the Hoe, and Other Poems (1899), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #67012, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/markham-man-with-hoe/at-dawn.html, id L24778.
Form and metre
At Dawn is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
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 AABBCC stirredA · birdA · abyssB · thisB · knewC · tooC
- 2 AABBCCDD partA · heartA · dieB · highB · deadC · headC · riseD · skiesD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Just then the branches lightly stirred.... | 9 | ···/˘/˘·˘ |
| See, out o’ the apple boughs a bird | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| Bursts music-mad into the blue abyss: | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| Rothschild would give his gold for this-- | 8 | /······· |
| The wealth of nations, if he knew: | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| (And find a profit in the business, too.) | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| O friend, we never choose the better part, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Until we set the Cross up in the heart. | 10 | ·········· |
| I know I can not live until I die-- | 10 | ·········· |
| Till I am nailed upon it wild and high, | 10 | ·········· |
| And sleep in the tomb for a full three days dead, | 11 | ··········· |
| With angels at the feet and at the head. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| But then in a great brightness I shall rise | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| To walk with stiller feet below the skies. | 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.