The Noble Nature
It is not growing like a treeIn bulk doth make man better be;Or standing long an oak, three hundred yearTo fall a log at last, dry, bald, and searA lily of a dayIs fairer far in May,Although it fall and die that night,--It was the plant and flower of light.In small proportions we just beauties see;And in short measures life may perfect be.
About this text
The Noble Nature 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, The Noble Nature, in Poems Every Child Should Know (1904), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16436, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/poems-every-child/the-noble-nature.html, id L25201.
Form and metre
The Noble Nature is 10 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: octosyllabic couplets. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter.
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 AABBCCDDAA treeA · beA · yearB · searB · dayC · mayC · nightD · lightD · seeA · beA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| It is not growing like a tree | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| In bulk doth make man better be; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Or standing long an oak, three hundred year | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sear | 10 | ·········· |
| A lily of a day | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Is fairer far in May, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Although it fall and die that night,-- | 8 | ········ |
| It was the plant and flower of light. | 8 | ·····/·· |
| In small proportions we just beauties see; | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| And in short measures life may perfect be. | 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.