Portrait by a Neighbour
Before she has her floor sweptOr her dishes done,Any day you’ll find herA-sunning in the sun!
It’s long after midnightHer key’s in the lock,And you never see her chimney smokeTill past ten o’clock!
She digs in her gardenWith a shovel and a spoon,She weeds her lazy lettuceBy the light of the moon.
She walks up the walkLike a woman in a dream,She forgets she borrowed butterAnd pays you back cream!
Her lawn looks like a meadow,And if she mows the placeShe leaves the clover standingAnd the Queen Anne’s lace!
Words in this poem
- chimney n.
- A fireplace or hearth. Sir W. Raleigh.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Portrait by a Neighbour is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #59167; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edna St. Vincent Millay, Portrait by a Neighbour, in Poems (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59167, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/millay-poems/portrait-by-a-neighbour.html, id L24355.
Form and metre
Portrait by a Neighbour is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is short measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%).
See other poems in short measure.
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 -A-A swept · doneA · her · sunA
- 2 -A-A midnight · lockA · smoke · o'clockA
- 3 AA-A gardenA · spoonA · lettuce · moonA
- 4 -A-A walk · dreamA · butter · creamA
- 5 -A-A meadow · placeA · standing · laceA
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 short measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Before she has her floor swept | 7 | ······· |
| Or her dishes done, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Any day you’ll find her | 6 | /˘···· |
| A-sunning in the sun! | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| It’s long after midnight | 6 | ····/· |
| Her key’s in the lock, | 5 | ····· |
| And you never see her chimney smoke | 8 | ··/··/˘· |
| Till past ten o’clock! | 5 | ···˘/ |
| She digs in her garden | 6 | ····/˘ |
| With a shovel and a spoon, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| She weeds her lazy lettuce | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| By the light of the moon. | 6 | ······ |
| She walks up the walk | 5 | ····· |
| Like a woman in a dream, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| She forgets she borrowed butter | 8 | ·˘/·/·/˘ |
| And pays you back cream! | 5 | ····· |
| Her lawn looks like a meadow, | 7 | ·····/· |
| And if she mows the place | 6 | ······ |
| She leaves the clover standing | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| And the Queen Anne’s lace! | 5 | ····· |
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.