Blight
Hard seeds of hate I plantedThat should by now be grown,--Rough stalks, and from thick stamensA poisonous pollen blown,And odors rank, unbreathable,From dark corollas thrown!
At dawn from my damp gardenI shook the chilly dew;The thin boughs locked behind meThat sprang to let me through;The blossoms slept,--I sought a placeWhere nothing lovely grew.
And there, when day was breaking,I knelt and looked around:The light was near, the silenceWas palpitant with sound;I drew my hate from out my breastAnd thrust it in the ground.
Oh, ye so fiercely tended,Ye little seeds of hate!I bent above your growingEarly and noon and late,Yet are ye drooped and pitiful,--I cannot rear ye straight!
The sun seeks out my garden,No nook is left in shade,No mist nor mold nor mildewEndures on any blade,Sweet rain slants under every bough:Ye falter, and ye fade.
Words in this poem
- pollen n.
- Fine bran or flour. Bailey.
- shook v. t.
- To pack, as staves, in a shook.
- palpitant a.
- Palpitating; throbbing; trembling. Carlyle. [L. palpitans, p. pr.]
- nook n.
- A narrow place formed by an angle in bodies or between bodies; a corner; a recess; a secluded retreat. [OE. nok; cf. Gael. & Ir. niuc.]
- mildew n.
- A growth of minute powdery or webby fungi, whitish or of different colors, found on various diseased or decaying substances. [AS. meledeáw; akin to OHG. militou, G. mehlthau, mehltau; prob. orig. meaning, honeydew; cf. Goth. milip honey. See Mellifluous, and Dew.]
- falter v. t.
- To thrash in the chaff; also, to cleanse or sift, as barley.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Blight is in the public domain. This text is taken from Renascence, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #109; 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, Blight, in Renascence and Other Poems (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #109, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/millay-renascence/blight.html, id L07738.
Form and metre
Blight is 30 lines in 5 stanzas of 6 lines each. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.8 syllables. 8 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 30% 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 -A-A-A planted · grownA · stamens · blownA · unbreathable · thrownA
- 2 -A-A-A garden · dewA · me · throughA · place · grewA
- 3 -A-A-A breaking · aroundA · silence · soundA · breast · groundA
- 4 -A-A-A tended · hateA · growing · lateA · pitiful · straightA
- 5 -A-A-A garden · shadeA · mildew · bladeA · bough · fadeA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Hard seeds of hate I planted | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| That should by now be grown,-- | 6 | ······ |
| Rough stalks, and from thick stamens | 7 | ······· |
| A poisonous pollen blown, | 7 | ·/˘˘/˘· |
| And odors rank, unbreathable, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| From dark corollas thrown! | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| At dawn from my damp garden | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| I shook the chilly dew; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The thin boughs locked behind me | 7 | ······· |
| That sprang to let me through; | 6 | ······ |
| The blossoms slept,--I sought a place | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Where nothing lovely grew. | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| And there, when day was breaking, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| I knelt and looked around: | 6 | ······ |
| The light was near, the silence | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Was palpitant with sound; | 6 | ·/˘˘·· |
| I drew my hate from out my breast | 8 | ········ |
| And thrust it in the ground. | 6 | ······ |
| Oh, ye so fiercely tended, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Ye little seeds of hate! | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| I bent above your growing | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Early and noon and late, | 6 | /˘···· |
| Yet are ye drooped and pitiful,-- | 9 | ····˘·/˘˘ |
| I cannot rear ye straight! | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The sun seeks out my garden, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| No nook is left in shade, | 6 | ······ |
| No mist nor mold nor mildew | 7 | ·····/· |
| Endures on any blade, | 6 | ˘/·/˘· |
| Sweet rain slants under every bough: | 9 | ·····/˘˘· |
| Ye falter, and ye fade. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
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.