On Turning One Down with the Plow in April, 1786
Wee, modest, crimson-tipped flower,Thou’s met me in an evil hour;For I maun crush amang the stoureThy slender stem:To spare thee now is past my power,Thou bonny gem.
Alas! it’s no thy neebor sweet,The bonny lark, companion meet,Bending thee ’mang the dewy weet,Wi’ speckled breast,When upward-springing, blithe, to greetThe purpling east!
Cauld blew the bitter biting northUpon thy early, humble birth;Yet cheerfully thou glinted forthAmid the storm,Scarce reared above the parent earthThy tender form.
The flaunting flowers our gardens yield,High sheltering woods and wa’s maun shield,But thou, beneath the random bieldO’ clod or stane,Adorns the histie stibble-field,Unseen, alane.
There, in thy scanty mantle clad,Thy snawie bosom sunward spread,Thou lifts thy unassuming headIn humble guise;But now the share uptears thy bed,And low thou lies!
Such is the fate of artless maid,Sweet floweret of the rural shade!By love’s simplicity betrayed,And guileless trust,Till she, like thee, all soiled, is laidLow i’ the dust.
Such is the fate of simple bard,On life’s rough ocean luckless starr’d!Unskilful he to note the cardOf prudent lore,Till billows rage, and gales blow hard,And whelm him o’er!
Such fate to suffering worth is given,Who long with wants and woes has striven,By human pride or cunning drivenTo misery’s brink,Till wrenched of every stay but Heaven,He, ruined, sink!
Even thou who mourn’st the Daisy’s fate,That fate is thine--no distant date;Stern Ruin’s plowshare drives, elate,Full on thy bloom,Till crushed beneath the furrow’s weightShall be thy doom.
Words in this poem 19
- bonny a.
- Handsome; beautiful; pretty; attractively lively and graceful. [OE. boni, prob. fr. F. bon, fem. bonne, good, fr. L. bonus good. See Bounty, and cf. Bonus, Boon.]
- weet v. i.
- To know; to wit. Tyndale. [See Wit to know.]
- blithe a.
- Gay; merry; sprightly; joyous; glad; cheerful; as, a blithe spirit. [AS. bli blithe, kind; akin to Goth. blei kind, Icel. bli mild, gentle, Dan. & Sw. blid gentle, D. blijd blithe, OHG. blidi kind, blithe.]
- cheerfully adv.
- In a cheerful manner, gladly.
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- scarce a.
- Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
- bield n.
- A shelter. Same as Beild.
- clod n.
- A lump or mass, especially of earth, turf, or clay. [OE. clodde, latter form of clot. See Clot.]
- unseen a.
- Not seen or discovered.
- clad v.
- To clothe. Holland.
- sunward adv.
- Toward the sun.
- unassuming a.
- Not assuming; not bold or forward; not arrogant or presuming; humble; modest; retiring; as, an unassuming youth; unassuming manners.
- floweret n.
- A small flower; a floret.
- guileless a.
- Free from guile; artless.
- luckless a.
- Being without luck; unpropitious; unfortunate; unlucky; meeting with ill success or bad fortune; as, a luckless gamester; a luckless maid.
- whelm v. t.
- To cover with water or other fluid; to cover by immersion in something that envelops on all sides; to overwhelm; to ingulf.
- brink n.
- The edge, margin, or border of a steep place, as of a precipice; a bank or edge, as of a river or pit; a verge; a border; as, the brink of a chasm. Also Fig. [Dan. brink edge, verge; akin to Sw. brink declivity, hill, Icel. brekka; cf. LG. brink a grassy hill, W. bryn hill, bryncyn hillock.]
- elate a.
- Lifted up; raised; elevated. [L. elatus elevated, fig., elated, proud (the figure, perh., being borrowed from a prancing horse); e out + latus (used as p. p. of ferre to bear), for tlatus, a]
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
On Turning One Down with the Plow in April, 1786 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, On Turning One Down with the Plow in April, 1786, in Poems Every Child Should Know (1904), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16436, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/poems-every-child/on-turning-one-down-with-the-plow-in-april-1786.html, id L25219.
Form and metre
On Turning One Down with the Plow in April, 1786 is 54 lines in 9 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AAABAB, complete in 8 of its 9 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
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 AAABAB flowerA · hourA · stoureA · stemB · powerA · gemB
- 2 AAABAB sweetA · meetA · weetA · breastB · greetA · eastB
- 3 ABACBC northA · birthB · forthA · stormC · earthB · formC
- 4 AAABAB yieldA · shieldA · bieldA · staneB · fieldA · alaneB
- 5 AAABAB cladA · spreadA · headA · guiseB · bedA · liesB
- 6 AAABAB maidA · shadeA · betrayedA · trustB · laidA · dustB
- 7 AAABAB bardA · starr'dA · cardA · loreB · hardA · o'erB
- 8 AAABAB givenA · strivenA · drivenA · brinkB · heavenA · sinkB
- 9 AAABAB fateA · dateA · elateA · bloomB · weightA · doomB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Wee, modest, crimson-tipped flower, | 8 | ·/˘/˘·/˘ |
| Thou’s met me in an evil hour; | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| For I maun crush amang the stoure | 8 | ········ |
| Thy slender stem: | 4 | ·/˘· |
| To spare thee now is past my power, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Thou bonny gem. | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Alas! it’s no thy neebor sweet, | 8 | ˘/······ |
| The bonny lark, companion meet, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| Bending thee ’mang the dewy weet, | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| Wi’ speckled breast, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| When upward-springing, blithe, to greet | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| The purpling east! | 5 | ·/˘˘· |
| Cauld blew the bitter biting north | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Upon thy early, humble birth; | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Yet cheerfully thou glinted forth | 8 | ·/˘˘·/˘· |
| Amid the storm, | 4 | ˘/·· |
| Scarce reared above the parent earth | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Thy tender form. | 4 | ·/˘· |
| The flaunting flowers our gardens yield, | 8 | ·/˘///˘· |
| High sheltering woods and wa’s maun shield, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| But thou, beneath the random bield | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| O’ clod or stane, | 4 | ···· |
| Adorns the histie stibble-field, | 8 | ˘/······ |
| Unseen, alane. | 4 | ˘/˘/ |
| There, in thy scanty mantle clad, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Thy snawie bosom sunward spread, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Thou lifts thy unassuming head | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| In humble guise; | 4 | ·/˘· |
| But now the share uptears thy bed, | 8 | ········ |
| And low thou lies! | 4 | ···· |
| Such is the fate of artless maid, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Sweet floweret of the rural shade! | 9 | ·/˘˘··/˘· |
| By love’s simplicity betrayed, | 8 | ··˘/˘˘˘/ |
| And guileless trust, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Till she, like thee, all soiled, is laid | 8 | ········ |
| Low i’ the dust. | 4 | ···· |
| Such is the fate of simple bard, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| On life’s rough ocean luckless starr’d! | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Unskilful he to note the card | 8 | ········ |
| Of prudent lore, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Till billows rage, and gales blow hard, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And whelm him o’er! | 4 | ···· |
| Such fate to suffering worth is given, | 8 | ···/˘··/ |
| Who long with wants and woes has striven, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| By human pride or cunning driven | 9 | ·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| To misery’s brink, | 5 | ·/˘˘· |
| Till wrenched of every stay but Heaven, | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| He, ruined, sink! | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Even thou who mourn’st the Daisy’s fate, | 8 | /····/˘· |
| That fate is thine--no distant date; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Stern Ruin’s plowshare drives, elate, | 8 | ·/˘/··˘/ |
| Full on thy bloom, | 4 | ···· |
| Till crushed beneath the furrow’s weight | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Shall be thy doom. | 4 | ···· |
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