Among the Pines
Here let us linger at will and delightsomely hearkenMusic aeolian of wind in the boughs of pine,Timbrel of falling waters, sounds all soft and sonorous,Worshipful litanies sung at a bannered shrine.
Deep let us breathe the ripeness and savor of balsam,Tears that the pines have wept in sorrow sweet,With its aroma comes beguilement of things forgotten,Long-past hopes of the years on tip-toeing feet.
Far in the boskiest glen of this wood is a dream and a silence—Come, we shall claim them ours ere look we long;A dream that we dreamed and lost, a silence richly hearted,Deep at its lyric core with the soul of a song.
If there be storm, it will thunder a march in the branches,So that our feet may keep true time as we go;If there be rain, it will laugh, it will glisten, and beckon,Calling to us as a friend all lightly and low.
If it be night, the moonlight will wander winsomely with us,If it be hour of dawn, all heaven will bloom,If it be sunset, it's glow will enfold and pursue us.To the remotest valley of purple gloom.
Lo! the pine wood is a temple where the days meet to worship,Laying their cark and care for the nonce aside,God, who made it, keeps it as a witness to Him forever,Walking in it, as a garden, at eventide.
Words in this poem
- timbrel n.
- A kind of drum, tabor, or tabret, in use from the highest antiquity. [Dim. of OE. timbre, OF. timbre; probably fr. L. typmanum, Gr. tabl a drum; cf. Per. tambal a drum. See Tympanum, and cf. 2d Timbre, Tymbal.]
- worshipful a.
- Entitled to worship, reverence, or high respect; claiming respect; worthy of honor; -- often used as a term of respect, sometimes ironically.
- bannered a.
- Decorated with a banner or banners
- beguilement n.
- The act of beguiling, or the state of being beguiled.
- 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,]
- beckon v. t.
- To make a significant sign to; hence, to summon, as by a motion of the hand.
- enfold v. t.
- To infold. See Infold.
- cark n.
- A noxious or corroding care; solicitude; worry. [OE. cark, fr. a dialectic form of F. charge; cf. W. carc anxiety, care, Arm karg charge, burden. See Charge, and cf. Cargo.]
- nonce n.
- The one or single occasion; the present call or purpose; -- chiefly used in the phrase for the nonce. [For the nonce, OE. for the nones, a corruption of for then ones, where n. in then is a relic of AS. m in , dat. of the article and demonstrative pronoun, E. the]
- eventide n.
- The time of evening; evening. [AS. æfentid. See Tide.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Among the Pines 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, Among the Pines, in The Watchman and Other Poems (1916), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/montgomery-watchman/among-the-pines.html, id L29391.
Form and metre
Among the Pines is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 hearken · pineA · sonorous · shrineA
- 2 -A-A balsam · sweetA · forgotten · feetA
- 3 -A-A silence · longA · hearted · songA
- 4 -A-A branches · goA · beckon · lowA
- 5 ABAB usA · bloomB · usA · gloomB
- 6 -A-A worship · asideA · forever · eventideA
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Here let us linger at will and delightsomely hearken | 15 | ···/˘········/˘ |
| Music aeolian of wind in the boughs of pine, | 11 | /˘········· |
| Timbrel of falling waters, sounds all soft and sonorous, | 13 | /˘·/˘/˘····/˘ |
| Worshipful litanies sung at a bannered shrine. | 10 | /˘/˘···/˘· |
| Deep let us breathe the ripeness and savor of balsam, | 13 | ·····/˘·/˘·/˘ |
| Tears that the pines have wept in sorrow sweet, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| With its aroma comes beguilement of things forgotten, | 14 | ··˘/˘·˘/˘··˘/˘ |
| Long-past hopes of the years on tip-toeing feet. | 11 | ········/˘· |
| Far in the boskiest glen of this wood is a dream and a silence— | 16 | ··············/˘ |
| Come, we shall claim them ours ere look we long; | 10 | ·····/···· |
| A dream that we dreamed and lost, a silence richly hearted, | 14 | ········/˘/˘/˘ |
| Deep at its lyric core with the soul of a song. | 12 | ···/˘······· |
| If there be storm, it will thunder a march in the branches, | 14 | ······/˘····/˘ |
| So that our feet may keep true time as we go; | 11 | ··/········ |
| If there be rain, it will laugh, it will glisten, and beckon, | 14 | ·········/˘·/˘ |
| Calling to us as a friend all lightly and low. | 12 | /˘······/˘·· |
| If it be night, the moonlight will wander winsomely with us, | 16 | ·····/··/˘······ |
| If it be hour of dawn, all heaven will bloom, | 10 | ···/···/·· |
| If it be sunset, it's glow will enfold and pursue us. | 14 | ···/····˘/·˘/· |
| To the remotest valley of purple gloom. | 11 | ··˘/˘/˘·/˘· |
| Lo! the pine wood is a temple where the days meet to worship, | 15 | ······/˘·····/˘ |
| Laying their cark and care for the nonce aside, | 11 | /˘·······˘/ |
| God, who made it, keeps it as a witness to Him forever, | 15 | ········/˘··˘/˘ |
| Walking in it, as a garden, at eventide. | 12 | /˘····/˘·/˘˘ |
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.