Poem IV
For in the warm blue summer weatherWe shall laugh and love together:I shall watch my baby growing,I shall guide his feet,When the orange trees are blowingAnd the winds are heavy and sweet!
When the orange orchards whitenI shall see his great eyes brightenTo watch the long-legged camels goingUp the twisted street,When the orange trees are blowingAnd the winds are sweet.
What does it mean? Indeed, it seemsA dream! Yet not like other dreams!
We shall walk in pleasant vales,Listening to the shepherd's songI shall tell him lovely talesAll day long:He shall laugh while mother singsTales of fishermen and kings.
He shall see them come and goO'er the wistful sea,Where rosy oleanders blowRound blue Lake Galilee,Kings with fishers' ragged coatsAnd silver nets across their boats,Dipping through the starry glow,With crowns for him and me!Ah, no;Crowns for him, not me!
Rockaby so! Indeed, it seemsA dream! Yet not like other dreams!
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,]
- brighten v. t.
- To make bright or brighter; to make to shine; to increase the luster of; to give a brighter hue to.
- wistful a.
- Longing; wishful; desirous. [For wishful; perhaps influenced by wistly, which is probably corrupted from OE. wisly certainly (from Icel. viss certain, akin to E. wit). See Wish.]
- starry a.
- Abounding with stars; adorned with stars.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Poem IV is in the public domain. This text is taken from Collected Poems: Volume One, Project Gutenberg ebook #30501; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Alfred Noyes, Poem IV, in Collected Poems, Volume One (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #30501, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/noyes-collected/poem-iv.html, id L21493.
Form and metre
Poem IV is 32 lines in 6 stanzas. The commonest rhyme scheme is AABCBC, in 2 of the 6 stanzas; the rest vary or could not be confirmed. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%).
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 AABCBC weatherA · togetherA · growingB · feetC · blowingB · sweetC
- 2 AABCBC whitenA · brightenA · goingB · streetC · blowingB · sweetC
- 3 AA seemsA · dreamsA
- 4 ABABCC valesA · songB · talesA · longB · singsC · kingsC
- 5 ABABCCABAB goA · seaB · blowA · galileeB · coatsC · boatsC · glowA · meB · noA · meB
- 6 AA seemsA · dreamsA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| For in the warm blue summer weather | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| We shall laugh and love together: | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| I shall watch my baby growing, | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| I shall guide his feet, | 5 | ····· |
| When the orange trees are blowing | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| And the winds are heavy and sweet! | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| When the orange orchards whiten | 8 | ··/˘/˘/˘ |
| I shall see his great eyes brighten | 8 | ······/˘ |
| To watch the long-legged camels going | 9 | ····/˘/˘/ |
| Up the twisted street, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| When the orange trees are blowing | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| And the winds are sweet. | 5 | ····· |
| What does it mean? Indeed, it seems | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| A dream! Yet not like other dreams! | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| We shall walk in pleasant vales, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Listening to the shepherd's song | 8 | /˘˘··/˘· |
| I shall tell him lovely tales | 7 | ····/˘· |
| All day long: | 3 | ··· |
| He shall laugh while mother sings | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Tales of fishermen and kings. | 7 | ··/˘˘·· |
| He shall see them come and go | 7 | ······· |
| O'er the wistful sea, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Where rosy oleanders blow | 8 | ·/˘/˘·˘· |
| Round blue Lake Galilee, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Kings with fishers' ragged coats | 8 | ··/˘/˘˘· |
| And silver nets across their boats, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| Dipping through the starry glow, | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| With crowns for him and me! | 6 | ······ |
| Ah, no; | 2 | ·· |
| Crowns for him, not me! | 5 | ····· |
| Rockaby so! Indeed, it seems | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| A dream! Yet not like other dreams! | 8 | ·····/˘· |
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