A Summer Day
The dawn laughs out on orient hillsAnd dances with the diamond rills;The ambrosial wind but faintly stirsThe silken, beaded gossamers;In the wide valleys, lone and fair,Lyrics are piped from limpid air,And, far above, the pine trees freeVoice ancient lore of sky and sea.Come, let us fill our hearts straightwayWith hope and courage of the day.
Noon, hiving sweets of sun and flower,Has fallen on dreams in wayside bower,Where bees hold honeyed fellowshipWith the ripe blossom of her lip;All silent are her poppied valesAnd all her long Arcadian dales,Where idleness is gathered upA magic draught in summer's cup.Come, let us give ourselves to dreamsBy lisping margins of her streams.
Adown the golden sunset wayThe evening comes in wimple gray;By burnished shore and silver lakeCool winds of ministration wake;O'er occidental meadows farThere shines the light of moon and star,And sweet, low-tinkling music ringsAbout the lips of haunted springs.In quietude of earth and air'Tis meet we yield our souls to prayer.
Words in this poem
- ambrosial a.
- Consisting of, or partaking of the nature of, ambrosia; delighting the taste or smell; delicious.
- lone n.
- A lane. See Loanin.
- piped a.
- Formed with a pipe; having pipe or pipes; tubular.
- straightway adv.
- Immediately; without loss of time; without delay.
- wayside n.
- The side of the way; the edge or border of a road or path.
- honeyed a.
- Covered with honey.
- poppied a.
- Mingled or interspersed with poppies. [See 1st Poppy.]
- arcadian a.
- Of or pertaining to Arcadia; pastoral; ideally rural; as, Arcadian simplicity or scenery. [L. Arcadius, Arcadicus, fr. Arcadia: cf. F. Arcadien, Arcadique.]
- adown adv.
- From a higher to a lower situation; downward; down, to or on the ground. [OE. adun, adoun, adune. AS. of dune off the hill. See Down.]
- wimple n.
- A covering of silk, linen, or other material, for the neck and chin, formerly worn by women as an outdoor protection, and still retained in the dress of nuns. [OE. wimpel, AS. winpel; akin to D. & G. wimpel a pennant, streamer, OHG. wimpal a veil, Icel. vimpill, Dan. & Sw. vimpel a pennant, streamer; of uncertain origi]
- ministration n.
- The act of ministering; service; ministry. [L. ministratio, fr. ministrare.]
- haunted a.
- Inhabited by, or subject to the visits of, apparitions; frequented by a ghost.
- quietude n.
- Rest; repose; quiet; tranquillity. Shelley. [L. quietudo: cf. F. quiétude.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Summer Day is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Watchman and Other Poems (New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1917; Toronto: McClelland, Goodchild and Stewart, 1916), Internet Archive; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: L. M. Montgomery, A Summer Day, in The Watchman and Other Poems (1916), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/montgomery-watchman/a-summer-day.html, id L29395.
Form and metre
A Summer Day is 30 lines in 3 stanzas of 10 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABBCCDDEE. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
See 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 AABBCCDDEE hillsA · rillsA · stirsB · gossamersB · fairC · airC · freeD · seaD · straightwayE · dayE
- 2 AABBCCDDEE flowerA · bowerA · fellowshipB · lipB · valesC · dalesC · upD · cupD · dreamsE · streamsE
- 3 AABBCCDDEE wayA · grayA · lakeB · wakeB · farC · starC · ringsD · springsD · airE · prayerE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The dawn laughs out on orient hills | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| And dances with the diamond rills; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The ambrosial wind but faintly stirs | 9 | ·˘/˘··/˘· |
| The silken, beaded gossamers; | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘˘ |
| In the wide valleys, lone and fair, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Lyrics are piped from limpid air, | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| And, far above, the pine trees free | 8 | ········ |
| Voice ancient lore of sky and sea. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Come, let us fill our hearts straightway | 9 | ····/˘·/˘ |
| With hope and courage of the day. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Noon, hiving sweets of sun and flower, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Has fallen on dreams in wayside bower, | 9 | ·/˘···/·/ |
| Where bees hold honeyed fellowship | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| With the ripe blossom of her lip; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| All silent are her poppied vales | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And all her long Arcadian dales, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Where idleness is gathered up | 8 | ·/˘˘·/˘· |
| A magic draught in summer's cup. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Come, let us give ourselves to dreams | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| By lisping margins of her streams. | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Adown the golden sunset way | 8 | ˘/·/˘/·· |
| The evening comes in wimple gray; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| By burnished shore and silver lake | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Cool winds of ministration wake; | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| O'er occidental meadows far | 8 | ··˘/˘/·· |
| There shines the light of moon and star, | 8 | ········ |
| And sweet, low-tinkling music rings | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| About the lips of haunted springs. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| In quietude of earth and air | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| 'Tis meet we yield our souls to prayer. | 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.