The Rosebud
Queen of fragrance, lovely Rose,The beauties of thy leaves disclose!--But thou, fair Nymph, thyself surveyIn this sweet offspring of a day.That miracle of face must fail,Thy charms are sweet, but charms are frail:Swift as the short-lived flower they fly,At morn they bloom, at evening die:Though Sickness yet a while forbears,Yet Time destroys what Sickness spares:Now Helen lives alone in fame,And Cleopatra’s but a name:Time must indent that heavenly brow,And thou must be what they are now.
Words in this poem
- 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
The Rosebud 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: William Broome, The Rosebud, in Poems (1745), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/obev-william-broome/the-rosebud.html, id L16154.
Form and metre
The Rosebud is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.9 syllables. 7% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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 AABBCCDDEEFFGG roseA · discloseA · surveyB · dayB · failC · frailC · flyD · dieD · forbearsE · sparesE · fameF · nameF · browG · nowG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Queen of fragrance, lovely Rose, | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| The beauties of thy leaves disclose! | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| --But thou, fair Nymph, thyself survey | 8 | ····˘/˘/ |
| In this sweet offspring of a day. | 8 | ···/···· |
| That miracle of face must fail, | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| Thy charms are sweet, but charms are frail: | 8 | ········ |
| Swift as the short-lived flower they fly, | 8 | ·····/·· |
| At morn they bloom, at evening die: | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Though Sickness yet a while forbears, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Yet Time destroys what Sickness spares: | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| Now Helen lives alone in fame, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| And Cleopatra’s but a name: | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| Time must indent that heavenly brow, | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| And thou must be what they are now. | 8 | ········ |
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.