July II
Sweet July, warm July!Month when mosses near the stream,Soft green mosses thick and shy,Are a rapture and a dream.Summer Queen! whose foot the fernFades beneath while chestnuts burn;I welcome thee with thy fierce love,Gloom below and gleam above.Though all the forest trees hang dumb,With dense leafiness o’ercome;Though the nightingale and thrush,Pipe not from the bough or bush;Come to me with thy lustrous eye,Azure-melting westerly,The raptures of thy face unfold,And welcome in thy robes of gold!Tho’ the nightingale broods—‘sweet-chuck-sweet’—And the ouzel flutes so chill,Tho’ the throstle gives but one shrilly trillTo the nightingale’s ‘sweet-sweet.’
Words in this poem
- leafiness n.
- The state of being leafy.
- westerly a.
- Of or pertaining to the west; toward the west; coming from the west; western.
- chuck v. i.
- To make a noise resembling that of a hen when she calls her chickens; to cluck. [Imitative of the sound.]
- throstle n.
- The song thrush. See under Song. [OE. throsel, AS. , ; akin to MHG. trostel, G. drossel, Icel. , Sw. trast, Lith. strazdas, L. turdus. *238. Cf. Thrush the bird.]
- shrilly a.
- Somewhat shrill.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
July II is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems — Volume 1, Project Gutenberg ebook #1381; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: George Meredith, July II, in Poems, Volume I (1851–1862), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1381, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/meredith-poems/july-ii.html, id L13164.
Form and metre
July II is 20 lines in a single stanza. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 78%). 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.5 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 10% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic 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 ABABCCDDEE--A-FFGHHG julyA · streamB · shyA · dreamB · fernC · burnC · loveD · aboveD · dumbE · o'ercomeE · thrush · bush · eyeA · westerly · unfoldF · goldF · sweetG · chillH · trillH · sweetG
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Sweet July, warm July! | 6 | ·˘/··/ |
| Month when mosses near the stream, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Soft green mosses thick and shy, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Are a rapture and a dream. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Summer Queen! whose foot the fern | 7 | /˘····· |
| Fades beneath while chestnuts burn; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| I welcome thee with thy fierce love, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Gloom below and gleam above. | 7 | ······· |
| Though all the forest trees hang dumb, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| With dense leafiness o’ercome; | 7 | ··/˘˘·· |
| Though the nightingale and thrush, | 7 | ··/˘˘·· |
| Pipe not from the bough or bush; | 7 | ······· |
| Come to me with thy lustrous eye, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Azure-melting westerly, | 7 | /˘/˘/˘˘ |
| The raptures of thy face unfold, | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| And welcome in thy robes of gold! | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Tho’ the nightingale broods—‘sweet-chuck-sweet’— | 9 | ··/˘˘···· |
| And the ouzel flutes so chill, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Tho’ the throstle gives but one shrilly trill | 10 | ··/˘···/˘· |
| To the nightingale’s ‘sweet-sweet.’ | 7 | ··/˘˘·· |
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.