Give Place
Starry Crowns of HeavenSet in azure night!Linger yet a littleEre you hide your light:---Nay; let Starlight fade awayHeralding the day!
Snowflakes pure and spotless,Still, oh, still remain,Binding dreary winter,In your silver chain:---Nay; but melt at once and bringRadiant sunny Spring!
Blossoms, gentle blossoms,Do not wither yet;Still for you the sun shines,Still the dews are wet:----Nay; but fade and wither last,Fruit must come at last!
Joy, so true and tender,Dare you not abide?Will you spread your pinions,Must you leave our side?--Nay; an Angel's shining graceWaits to fill your place!
Words in this poem
- starry a.
- Abounding with stars; adorned with stars.
- starlight n.
- The light given by the stars.
- dreary a.
- Sorrowful; distressful. [OE. dreori, dreri, AS. dreórig, sad; akin to G. traurig, and prob. to AS. dreósan to fall, Goth. driusan. Cf. Dross, Drear, Drizzle, Drowse.]
- sunny a.
- Of or pertaining to the sun; proceeding from, or resembling the sun; hence, shining; bright; brilliant; radiant.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Give Place is in the public domain. This text is taken from Legends and Lyrics. Part 2, Project Gutenberg ebook #2304; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Adelaide Anne Procter, Give Place, in Legends and Lyrics: Second Series (1861), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #2304, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/procter-legends-lyrics/give-place.html, id L21770.
Form and metre
Give Place is 24 lines in 4 stanzas of 6 lines each. The metre is trochaic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
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 -A-ABB heaven · nightA · little · lightA · awayB · dayB
- 2 -A-ABB spotless · remainA · winter · chainA · bringB · springB
- 3 -A-ABB blossoms · yetA · shines · wetA · lastB · lastB
- 4 -A-ABB tender · abideA · pinions · sideA · graceB · placeB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Starry Crowns of Heaven | 6 | /˘··/˘ |
| Set in azure night! | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Linger yet a little | 6 | /˘··/˘ |
| Ere you hide your light:- | 5 | ····· |
| --Nay; let Starlight fade away | 7 | ··/··˘/ |
| Heralding the day! | 5 | /˘˘·· |
| Snowflakes pure and spotless, | 6 | /···/˘ |
| Still, oh, still remain, | 5 | ···˘/ |
| Binding dreary winter, | 6 | /˘/˘/˘ |
| In your silver chain:- | 5 | ··/˘· |
| --Nay; but melt at once and bring | 7 | ······· |
| Radiant sunny Spring! | 6 | /˘˘/˘· |
| Blossoms, gentle blossoms, | 6 | /˘/˘/˘ |
| Do not wither yet; | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Still for you the sun shines, | 6 | ······ |
| Still the dews are wet:-- | 5 | ····· |
| --Nay; but fade and wither last, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Fruit must come at last! | 5 | ····· |
| Joy, so true and tender, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Dare you not abide? | 5 | ···˘/ |
| Will you spread your pinions, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Must you leave our side? | 6 | ···/˘· |
| --Nay; an Angel's shining grace | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Waits to fill your place! | 5 | ····· |
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.