Buttercups and Daisies
Buttercups and daisies,Oh, the pretty flowers,Coming ere the spring time,To tell of sunny hours.While the tree are leafless,While the fields are bare,Buttercups and daisiesSpring up here and there.
Ere the snowdrop peepeth,Ere the crocus bold,Ere the early primroseOpes its paly gold,Somewhere on the sunny bankButtercups are bright;Somewhere ’mong the frozen grassPeeps the daisy white.
Little hardy flowers,Like to children poor,Playing in their sturdy healthBy their mother’s door,Purple with the north wind,Yet alert and bold;Fearing not, and caring not,Though they be a-cold!
What to them is winter!What are stormy showers!Buttercups and daisiesAre these human flowers!He who gave them hardshipsAnd a life of care,Gave them likewise hardy strengthAnd patient hearts to bear.
Words in this poem
- sunny a.
- Of or pertaining to the sun; proceeding from, or resembling the sun; hence, shining; bright; brilliant; radiant.
- paly a.
- Pale; wanting color; dim. Shak. Whittier. [From Pale, a.]
- somewhere adv.
- In some place unknown or not specified; in one place or another.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Buttercups and Daisies is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems Every Child Should Know The What-Every-Child-Should-Know-Library, Project Gutenberg ebook #16436; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Mary E. Burt, Buttercups and Daisies, in Poems Every Child Should Know (1904), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16436, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/poems-every-child/buttercups-and-daisies.html, id L25194.
Form and metre
Buttercups and Daisies is 32 lines in 4 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is trochaic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%).
See other poems in trochaic trimeter.
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 AB-B-CAC daisiesA · flowersB · time · hoursB · leafless · bareC · daisiesA · thereC
- 2 -A-A-B-B peepeth · boldA · primrose · goldA · bank · brightB · grass · whiteB
- 3 -----A-A flowers · poor · health · door · wind · boldA · not · coldA
- 4 -A-A-B-B winter · showersA · daisies · flowersA · hardships · careB · strength · bearB
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Buttercups and daisies, | 6 | /˘··/˘ |
| Oh, the pretty flowers, | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| Coming ere the spring time, | 6 | /˘···· |
| To tell of sunny hours. | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| While the tree are leafless, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| While the fields are bare, | 5 | ····· |
| Buttercups and daisies | 6 | /˘··/˘ |
| Spring up here and there. | 5 | ····· |
| Ere the snowdrop peepeth, | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| Ere the crocus bold, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Ere the early primrose | 6 | ··/˘/· |
| Opes its paly gold, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Somewhere on the sunny bank | 7 | /···/˘· |
| Buttercups are bright; | 5 | /˘··· |
| Somewhere ’mong the frozen grass | 7 | /···/˘· |
| Peeps the daisy white. | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Little hardy flowers, | 6 | /˘/˘/˘ |
| Like to children poor, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Playing in their sturdy health | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| By their mother’s door, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Purple with the north wind, | 6 | /˘···· |
| Yet alert and bold; | 5 | ·˘/·· |
| Fearing not, and caring not, | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Though they be a-cold! | 5 | ····· |
| What to them is winter! | 6 | ····/˘ |
| What are stormy showers! | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| Buttercups and daisies | 6 | /˘··/˘ |
| Are these human flowers! | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| He who gave them hardships | 6 | ····/˘ |
| And a life of care, | 5 | ····· |
| Gave them likewise hardy strength | 7 | ··/·/˘· |
| And patient hearts to bear. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
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.