Rain on the Hill
Now on the hillThe fitful wind is so stillThat never a wimpling mist uplifts,Nor a trembling leaf drop-laden stirs;From the ancient firsAroma of balsam drifts,And the silent places are filledWith elusive odors distilledBy the rain from asters empearled and frilled,And a wild wet savor that dwellsFar adown in tawny fallows and bracken dells.
Then with a rush,Breaking the beautiful hushWhere the only sound was the lisping, lowConverse of raindrops, or the dear soundClose to the ground,That grasses make when they grow,Comes the wind in a gay,Rollicking, turbulent way,To winnow each bough and toss each spray,Piping and whistling in gleeWith the vibrant notes of a merry minstrelsy.
The friendly rainSings many a haunting strain,Now of gladness and now of dole,Anon of the glamor and the dreamThat ever seemTo wait on a pilgrim soul;Yea, we can hearThe grief of an elder year,And laughter half-forgotten and dear;In the wind and the rain we findFellowship meet for each change of mood or mind.
Words in this poem
- fitful a.
- Full of fits; irregularly variable; impulsive and unstable. [From 7th Fit.]
- elusive a.
- Tending to elude; using arts or deception to escape; adroitly escaping or evading; eluding the grasp; fallacious.
- frilled a.
- Furnished with a frill or frills. Frilled lizard (Zoöl.), a large Australian lizard (Chlamydosaurus Kingii) about three feet long, which has a large, erectile frill on each side of the neck.
- 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.]
- bracken n.
- A brake or fern. [OE. braken, AS. bracce. See 2d Brake, n.]
- piping a.
- Playing on a musical pipe. [From Pipe, v.]
- glee n.
- Music; minstrelsy; entertainment.
- vibrant a.
- Vibrating; tremulous; resonant; as, vibrant drums. [L. vibrans, p. pr.: cf. F. vibrant. See Vibrate.]
- minstrelsy n.
- The arts and occupation of minstrels; the singing and playing of a minstrel.
- anon adv.
- Straightway; at once. [OE. anoon, anon, anan, lit., in one (moment), fr. AS. on in + an one. See On and One.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Rain on the Hill 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, Rain on the Hill, in The Watchman and Other Poems (1916), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/montgomery-watchman/rain-on-the-hill.html, id L29382.
Form and metre
Rain on the Hill is 33 lines in 3 stanzas of 11 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 78%).
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 AA-BB-CCCDD hillA · stillA · uplifts · stirsB · firsB · drifts · filledC · distilledC · frilledC · dwellsD · dellsD
- 2 AABCCBDDD-- rushA · hushA · lowB · soundC · groundC · growB · gayD · wayD · sprayD · glee · minstrelsy
- 3 AABCCBDDDEE rainA · strainA · doleB · dreamC · seemC · soulB · hearD · yearD · dearD · findE · mindE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Now on the hill | 4 | ···· |
| The fitful wind is so still | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| That never a wimpling mist uplifts, | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| Nor a trembling leaf drop-laden stirs; | 9 | ··/˘··/˘· |
| From the ancient firs | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Aroma of balsam drifts, | 7 | ˘/˘·/˘· |
| And the silent places are filled | 8 | ··/˘/˘·· |
| With elusive odors distilled | 8 | ·˘/˘/˘˘/ |
| By the rain from asters empearled and frilled, | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| And a wild wet savor that dwells | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Far adown in tawny fallows and bracken dells. | 12 | ·˘/·/˘/··/˘· |
| Then with a rush, | 4 | ···· |
| Breaking the beautiful hush | 7 | /˘·/˘˘· |
| Where the only sound was the lisping, low | 10 | ··/˘···/˘· |
| Converse of raindrops, or the dear sound | 9 | ˘/·/····· |
| Close to the ground, | 4 | ···· |
| That grasses make when they grow, | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Comes the wind in a gay, | 6 | ······ |
| Rollicking, turbulent way, | 7 | /˘˘/˘˘· |
| To winnow each bough and toss each spray, | 9 | ·/······· |
| Piping and whistling in glee | 7 | /˘·/˘·· |
| With the vibrant notes of a merry minstrelsy. | 12 | ··/˘···/˘/˘˘ |
| The friendly rain | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Sings many a haunting strain, | 7 | ·/˘·/˘· |
| Now of gladness and now of dole, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Anon of the glamor and the dream | 9 | ˘/··/˘··· |
| That ever seem | 4 | ·/˘· |
| To wait on a pilgrim soul; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Yea, we can hear | 4 | ···· |
| The grief of an elder year, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| And laughter half-forgotten and dear; | 9 | ·/˘·˘/˘·· |
| In the wind and the rain we find | 8 | ········ |
| Fellowship meet for each change of mood or mind. | 11 | /˘········· |
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.