The Timber
Sure thou didst flourish once! and many springs,Many bright mornings, much dew, many showers,Pass’d o’er thy head; many light hearts and wings,Which now are dead, lodg’d in thy living bowers.
And still a new succession sings and flies;Fresh groves grow up, and their green branches shootTowards the old and still enduring skies,While the low violet thrives at their root.
But thou beneath the sad and heavy lineOf death, doth waste all senseless, cold, and dark;Where not so much as dreams of light may shine,Nor any thought of greenness, leaf, or bark.
And yet--as if some deep hate and dissent,Bred in thy growth betwixt high winds and thee,Were still alive--thou dost great storms resentBefore they come, and know’st how near they be.
Else all at rest thou liest, and the fierce breathOf tempests can no more disturb thy ease;But this thy strange resentment after deathMeans only those who broke--in life--thy peace.
Words in this poem
- didst
- , the 2d pers. sing. imp. of Do.
- betwixt prep.
- In the space which separates; between. [OE. betwix, bitwix, rarely bitwixt, AS. betweox, betweohs, betweoh, betwih; pref. be- by + a form fr. AS. twa two. See Between.]
- resent v. t.
- To be sensible of; to feel; as: (a) In a good sense, to take well; to receive with satisfaction. [F. ressentir; L. pref. re- re- + sentire to feel. See Sense.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Timber is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900, Project Gutenberg ebook #66619; 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 Vaughan, The Timber, in Poems (1621–1695), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/obev-henry-vaughan/the-timber.html, id L16112.
Form and metre
The Timber is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 4 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 ABAB springsA · showersB · wingsA · bowersB
- 2 ABAB fliesA · shootB · skiesA · rootB
- 3 ABAB lineA · darkB · shineA · barkB
- 4 ABAB dissentA · theeB · resentA · beB
- 5 A-A- breathA · ease · deathA · peace
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Sure thou didst flourish once! and many springs, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Many bright mornings, much dew, many showers, | 11 | /˘·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Pass’d o’er thy head; many light hearts and wings, | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| Which now are dead, lodg’d in thy living bowers. | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| And still a new succession sings and flies; | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Fresh groves grow up, and their green branches shoot | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Towards the old and still enduring skies, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| While the low violet thrives at their root. | 10 | ···/˘˘···· |
| But thou beneath the sad and heavy line | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Of death, doth waste all senseless, cold, and dark; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Where not so much as dreams of light may shine, | 10 | ·········· |
| Nor any thought of greenness, leaf, or bark. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| And yet--as if some deep hate and dissent, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Bred in thy growth betwixt high winds and thee, | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| Were still alive--thou dost great storms resent | 10 | ··˘/····˘/ |
| Before they come, and know’st how near they be. | 10 | ·········· |
| Else all at rest thou liest, and the fierce breath | 10 | ·········· |
| Of tempests can no more disturb thy ease; | 10 | ·/˘···˘/·· |
| But this thy strange resentment after death | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Means only those who broke--in life--thy peace. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
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.