Violets
VIOLETS, shy violets!How many hearts with you compare!Who hide themselves in thickest green,And thence, unseen,Ravish the enraptured airWith sweetness, dewy fresh and rare!
Violets, shy violets!Human hearts to me shall beViewless violets in the grass,And as I pass,Odours and sweet imageryWill wait on mine and gladden me!
Words in this poem
- unseen a.
- Not seen or discovered.
- 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,]
- viewless a.
- Not perceivable by the eye; invisible; unseen.
- imagery n.
- The work of one who makes images or visible representation of objects; imitation work; images in general, or in mass. [OE. imagerie, F. imagerie.]
- gladden v. t.
- To make glad; to cheer; to please; to gratify; to rejoice; to exhilarate. [See Glad, v. t.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Violets 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, Violets, in Poems, Volume I (1851–1862), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1381, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/meredith-poems/violets.html, id L13139.
Form and metre
Violets is 12 lines in 2 stanzas of 6 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 50% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.9 syllables. 3 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 octosyllabic couplets, other poems in iambic 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 -ABBAA violets · compareA · greenB · unseenB · airA · rareA
- 2 -ABB-A violets · beA · grassB · passB · imagery · meA
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| VIOLETS, shy violets! | 7 | /˘˘·/˘˘ |
| How many hearts with you compare! | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| Who hide themselves in thickest green, | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| And thence, unseen, | 4 | ··˘/ |
| Ravish the enraptured air | 7 | /˘·˘/˘· |
| With sweetness, dewy fresh and rare! | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Violets, shy violets! | 7 | /˘˘·/˘˘ |
| Human hearts to me shall be | 7 | /˘····· |
| Viewless violets in the grass, | 8 | /˘/˘˘··· |
| And as I pass, | 4 | ···· |
| Odours and sweet imagery | 7 | /˘··/˘˘ |
| Will wait on mine and gladden me! | 8 | ·····/˘· |
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.