Laurel · George Meredith · Poems, Volume I

Song

George Meredith (1828–1909) · 1851–1862

iambic trimeter · ABBA · 32 lines · from Poems, Volume I

THE daisy now is out upon the green;And in the grassy lanesThe child of April rains,The sweet fresh-hearted violet, is smelt and loved unseen.

Along the brooks and meads, the daffodilIts yellow richness spreads,And by the fountain-headsOf rivers, cowslips cluster round, and over every hill.

The crocus and the primrose may have gone,The snowdrop may be low,But soon the purple glowOf hyacinths will fill the copse, and lilies watch the dawn.

And in the sweetness of the budding year,The cuckoo’s woodland call,The skylark over all,And then at eve, the nightingale, is doubly sweet and dear.

My soul is singing with the happy birds,And all my human powersAre blooming with the flowers,My foot is on the fields and downs, among the flocks and herds.

Deep in the forest where the foliage droops,I wander, fill’d with joy.Again as when a boy,The sunny vistas tempt me on with dim delicious hopes.

The sunny vistas, dim with hurrying shade,And old romantic haze:—Again as in past days,The spirit of immortal Spring doth every sense pervade.

Oh! do not say that this will ever cease;—This joy of woods and fields,This youth that nature yields,Will never speak to me in vain, tho’ soundly rapt in peace.

Words in this poem

unseen a.: Not seen or discovered.
copse n.: A wood of small growth; a thicket of brushwood. See Coppice. [Contr. from coppice.]
skylark n.: A lark that mounts and sings as it files, especially the common species (Alauda arvensis) found in Europe and in some parts of Asia, and celebrated for its melodious song; -- called also sky laverock.
sunny a.: Of or pertaining to the sun; proceeding from, or resembling the sun; hence, shining; bright; brilliant; radiant.
pervade v. t.: To pass or flow through, as an aperture, pore, or interstice; to permeate. [L. pervadere, pervasum; per + vadere to go, to walk. See Per-, and Wade.]
rapt n.: An ecstasy; a trance. Bp. Morton. [From F. rapt abduction, rape, L. raptus, fr. rapere to seize and carry off, to transport; or fr. E. rapt, a. See Rapt, a., and Rapid.]

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

Song 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, Song, in Poems, Volume I (1851–1862), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1381, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/meredith-poems/song-6.html, id L13169.

Form and metre

Song is 32 lines in 8 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABBA, complete in 7 of its 8 stanzas. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.9 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 16% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.

See other poems in iambic trimeter.

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 ABBA green^A · lanes^B · rains^B · unseen^A
2 ABBA daffodil^A · spreads^B · heads^B · hill^A
3 ABBA gone^A · low^B · glow^B · dawn^A
4 ABBA year^A · call^B · all^B · dear^A
5 ABBA birds^A · powers^B · flowers^B · herds^A
6 -AA- droops · joy^A · boy^A · hopes
7 ABBA shade^A · haze^B · days^B · pervade^A
8 ABBA cease^A · fields^B · yields^B · peace^A

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 trimeter. How this is done.

Line	Syl.	Stress
THE daisy now is out upon the green;	10	·/˘·······
And in the grassy lanes	6	···/˘·
The child of April rains,	6	···/˘·
The sweet fresh-hearted violet, is smelt and loved unseen.	13	···/˘/˘····˘/
Along the brooks and meads, the daffodil	10	˘/·····/˘·
Its yellow richness spreads,	6	·/˘/˘·
And by the fountain-heads	6	···/˘·
Of rivers, cowslips cluster round, and over every hill.	13	·/˘/˘/˘···/˘·
The crocus and the primrose may have gone,	10	·/˘··/····
The snowdrop may be low,	6	·/˘···
But soon the purple glow	6	···/˘·
Of hyacinths will fill the copse, and lilies watch the dawn.	13	·/˘·····/˘···
And in the sweetness of the budding year,	10	···/˘··/˘·
The cuckoo’s woodland call,	6	·/˘/··
The skylark over all,	6	·/····
And then at eve, the nightingale, is doubly sweet and dear.	13	·····/˘·/˘···
My soul is singing with the happy birds,	10	···/˘··/˘·
And all my human powers	7	···/˘/˘
Are blooming with the flowers,	7	·/˘··/˘
My foot is on the fields and downs, among the flocks and herds.	14	··············
Deep in the forest where the foliage droops,	10	···/˘··/˘·
I wander, fill’d with joy.	6	·/˘···
Again as when a boy,	6	˘/····
The sunny vistas tempt me on with dim delicious hopes.	14	·/˘/˘·····˘/˘·
The sunny vistas, dim with hurrying shade,	10	·/˘/˘··/˘·
And old romantic haze:—	6	··˘/˘·
Again as in past days,	6	˘/····
The spirit of immortal Spring doth every sense pervade.	13	·/·˘/˘··/˘·˘/
Oh! do not say that this will ever cease;—	10	·······/˘·
This joy of woods and fields,	6	······
This youth that nature yields,	6	···/˘·
Will never speak to me in vain, tho’ soundly rapt in peace.	13	·/······/˘···

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.

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Poems, Volume I