The Easter Flower
Far from this foreign Easter damp and chillyMy soul steals to a pear-shaped plot of ground,Where gleamed the lilac-tinted Easter lilySoft-scented in the air for yards around;
Alone, without a hint of guardian leaf!Just like a fragile bell of silver rime,It burst the tomb for freedom sweet and briefIn the young pregnant year at Eastertime;
And many thought it was a sacred sign,And some called it the resurrection flower;And I, a pagan, worshiped at its shrine,Yielding my heart unto its perfumed power.
Words in this poem
- rime n.
- A rent or long aperture; a chink; a fissure; a crack. Sir T. [L. rima.]
- resurrection n.
- A rising again; the resumption of vigor. [F. résurrection, L. resurrectio, fr. resurgere, resurrectum, to rise again; pref. re- re- + surgere to rise. See Source.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Easter Flower is in the public domain. This text is taken from Harlem shadows, Project Gutenberg ebook #64989; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Claude McKay, The Easter Flower, in Harlem Shadows (1922), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #64989, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mckay-harlem-shadows/the-easter-flower.html, id L01334.
Form and metre
The Easter Flower is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.3 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% 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 ABAB chillyA · groundB · lilyA · aroundB
- 2 ABAB leafA · rimeB · briefA · eastertimeB
- 3 ABAB signA · flowerB · shrineA · powerB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Far from this foreign Easter damp and chilly | 11 | ···/˘/˘··/˘ |
| My soul steals to a pear-shaped plot of ground, | 10 | ·········· |
| Where gleamed the lilac-tinted Easter lily | 11 | ···/·/˘/˘/˘ |
| Soft-scented in the air for yards around; | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Alone, without a hint of guardian leaf! | 10 | ˘/·····/˘· |
| Just like a fragile bell of silver rime, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| It burst the tomb for freedom sweet and brief | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| In the young pregnant year at Eastertime; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And many thought it was a sacred sign, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| And some called it the resurrection flower; | 11 | ······˘/˘/˘ |
| And I, a pagan, worshiped at its shrine, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Yielding my heart unto its perfumed power. | 11 | /˘·····˘//˘ |
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.