June
O queenly month of indolent repose!I drink thy breath in sips of rare perfume,As in thy downy lap of clover-bloomI nestle like a drowsy child and dozeThe lazy hours away. The zephyr throwsThe shifting shuttle of the Summer's loomAnd weaves a damask-work of gleam and gloomBefore thy listless feet. The lily blowsA bugle-call of fragrance o'er the glade;And, wheeling into ranks, with plume and spear,Thy harvest-armies gather on parade;While, faint and far away, yet pure and clear,A voice calls out of alien lands of shade:--All hail the Peerless Goddess of the Year!
Words in this poem
- queenly a.
- Like, becoming, or suitable to, a queen. [AS. cwenlic feminine.]
- indolent a.
- Free from toil, pain, or trouble. [Pref. in- not + L. dolens, -entis, p. pr. of dolere to feel pain: cf. F. indolent. See Dolorous.]
- nestle v. i.
- To make and occupy a nest; to nest. [AS. nestlian.]
- zephyr n.
- The west wind; poetically, any soft, gentle breeze. [L. zephyrus, Gr. zéphyr.]
- listless a.
- Having no desire or inclination; indifferent; heedless; spiritless. [OE. listles, lustles. See Lust.]
- glade n.
- An open passage through a wood; a grassy open or cleared space in a forest. [Prob. of Scand. origin, and akin to glad, a.; cf. also W. golead, goleuad, a lighting, illumination, fr. goleu light, clear, bright, goleu fwlch glade, lit., a ]
- wheeling n.
- The act of conveying anything, or traveling, on wheels, or in a wheeled vehicle.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
June is in the public domain. This text is taken from Riley Farm-Rhymes, Project Gutenberg ebook #4783; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: James Whitcomb Riley, June, in Riley Farm-Rhymes (1883–1901), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #4783, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/riley-farm-rhymes/june.html, id L01969.
Form and metre
June is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAABBACDCDCD, the pattern of the Italian sonnet. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 43% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other Italian sonnets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ABBAABBACDCDCD reposeA · perfumeB · bloomB · dozeA · throwsA · loomB · gloomB · blowsA · gladeC · spearD · paradeC · clearD · shadeC · yearD
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| O queenly month of indolent repose! | 10 | ·/˘··/˘˘˘/ |
| I drink thy breath in sips of rare perfume, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| As in thy downy lap of clover-bloom | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| I nestle like a drowsy child and doze | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| The lazy hours away. The zephyr throws | 10 | ·/˘/˘/·/˘· |
| The shifting shuttle of the Summer's loom | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| And weaves a damask-work of gleam and gloom | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Before thy listless feet. The lily blows | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| A bugle-call of fragrance o'er the glade; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| And, wheeling into ranks, with plume and spear, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Thy harvest-armies gather on parade; | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘·˘/ |
| While, faint and far away, yet pure and clear, | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| A voice calls out of alien lands of shade:-- | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| All hail the Peerless Goddess of the Year! | 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.