Song
The flowers that in thy garden rise,Fade and are gone when Summer flies,And as their sweets by time decay,So shall thy hopes be cast away.
The Sun that gilds the creeping mossStayeth not Earth's eternal loss:He is the lord of all that live,Yet there is life he cannot give.
The stir of Morning's eager breath--Beautiful Eve's impassioned death--Thou lovest these, thou lovest well,Yet of the Night thou canst not tell.
In every land thy feet may tread,Time like a veil is round thy head:Only the land thou seek'st with meNever hath been nor yet shall be.
It is not far, it is not near,Name it hath none that Earth can hear;But there thy Soul shall build againMemories long destroyed of men,And Joy thereby shall like a riverWander from deep to deep for ever.
Words in this poem
- 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,]
- impassioned p. p.
- Actuated or characterized by passion or zeal; showing warmth of feeling; ardent; animated; excited; as, an impassioned orator or discourse.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Song is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems: New and Old, Project Gutenberg ebook #24405; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Henry John Newbolt, Song, in Poems: New and Old (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #24405, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/newbolt-poems/song.html, id L18577.
Form and metre
Song is 22 lines in 5 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 4 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.3 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 18% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 AABB riseA · fliesA · decayB · awayB
- 2 AABB mossA · lossA · liveB · giveB
- 3 AABB breathA · deathA · wellB · tellB
- 4 AABB treadA · headA · meB · beB
- 5 AABB-- nearA · hearA · againB · menB · river · ever
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 flowers that in thy garden rise, | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
| Fade and are gone when Summer flies, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And as their sweets by time decay, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| So shall thy hopes be cast away. | 8 | ······˘/ |
| The Sun that gilds the creeping moss | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Stayeth not Earth's eternal loss: | 8 | /˘··˘/˘· |
| He is the lord of all that live, | 8 | ········ |
| Yet there is life he cannot give. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The stir of Morning's eager breath-- | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Beautiful Eve's impassioned death-- | 9 | /˘˘·˘/˘˘· |
| Thou lovest these, thou lovest well, | 8 | ········ |
| Yet of the Night thou canst not tell. | 8 | ········ |
| In every land thy feet may tread, | 9 | ·/˘˘····· |
| Time like a veil is round thy head: | 8 | ········ |
| Only the land thou seek'st with me | 8 | /˘······ |
| Never hath been nor yet shall be. | 8 | /˘······ |
| It is not far, it is not near, | 8 | ········ |
| Name it hath none that Earth can hear; | 8 | ········ |
| But there thy Soul shall build again | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Memories long destroyed of men, | 9 | /˘˘·˘/˘·· |
| And Joy thereby shall like a river | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Wander from deep to deep for ever. | 9 | /˘·····/˘ |
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.