Morning Along Shore
Hark, oh hark the elfin laughterAll the little waves along,As if echoes speeding afterMocked a merry merman's song!
All the gulls are out, delightingIn a wild, uncharted quest—See the first red sunshine smitingSilver sheen of wing and breast!
Ho, the sunrise rainbow-heartedSteals athwart the misty brine,And the sky where clouds have partedIs a bowl of amber wine!
Sweet, its cradle-lilt partaking,Dreams that hover o'er the sea,But the lyric of its wakingIs a sweeter thing to me!
Who would drowze in dull devotionTo his ease when dark is done,And upon its breast the oceanLike a jewel wears the sun?
"Up, forsake a lazy pillow!"Calls the sea from cleft and cave,Ho, for antic wind and billowWhen the morn is on the wave!
Words in this poem
- elfin a.
- Relating to elves.
- sunshine n.
- The light of the sun, or the place where it shines; the direct rays of the sun, the place where they fall, or the warmth and light which they give.
- sheen v. i.
- To shine; to glisten.
- lilt v. i.
- To do anything with animation and quickness, as to skip, fly, or hop. [Cf. Norw. lilla, lirla, to sing in a high tone.]
- hover n.
- A cover; a shelter; a protection. Carew. C. Kingsley. [Etymol. doubtful.]
- antic v. t.
- To make appear like a buffoon.
- billow n.
- A great wave or surge of the sea or other water, caused usually by violent wind. [Cf. Icel. bylgja billow, Dan. bölge, Sw. bölja; akin to MHG. bulge billow, bag, and to E. bulge. See Bulge.]
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Morning Along Shore 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, Morning Along Shore, in The Watchman and Other Poems (1916), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/montgomery-watchman/morning-along-shore.html, id L29367.
Form and metre
Morning Along Shore is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 96%).
See other poems in trochaic 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 ABAB laughterA · alongB · afterA · songB
- 2 ABAB delightingA · questB · smitingA · breastB
- 3 ABAB heartedA · brineB · partedA · wineB
- 4 ABAB partakingA · seaB · wakingA · meB
- 5 ABAB devotionA · doneB · oceanA · sunB
- 6 ABAB pillowA · caveB · billowA · waveB
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Hark, oh hark the elfin laughter | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| All the little waves along, | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| As if echoes speeding after | 8 | ··/˘/˘·· |
| Mocked a merry merman's song! | 8 | ·˘·/˘/·· |
| All the gulls are out, delighting | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| In a wild, uncharted quest— | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| See the first red sunshine smiting | 8 | ····/·/˘ |
| Silver sheen of wing and breast! | 7 | /˘····· |
| Ho, the sunrise rainbow-hearted | 8 | ··/·/·/˘ |
| Steals athwart the misty brine, | 7 | ·˘/·/˘· |
| And the sky where clouds have parted | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Is a bowl of amber wine! | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Sweet, its cradle-lilt partaking, | 8 | ··/˘·˘/˘ |
| Dreams that hover o'er the sea, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| But the lyric of its waking | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Is a sweeter thing to me! | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Who would drowze in dull devotion | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| To his ease when dark is done, | 7 | ······· |
| And upon its breast the ocean | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Like a jewel wears the sun? | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| "Up, forsake a lazy pillow!" | 8 | ·˘/·/˘/˘ |
| Calls the sea from cleft and cave, | 7 | ······· |
| Ho, for antic wind and billow | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| When the morn is on the wave! | 7 | ······· |
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.