The Stream
I know a streamThan which no lovelier flows.Its banks a-gleamWith yarrow and wild rose,Singing it goesAnd shining through my dream.
Its waters glideBeneath the basking noon,A magic tideThat keeps perpetual June.
There the light sleepsUnstirred by any storm;The wild mouse creepsThrough tall weeds hushed and warm;And the shy snipe,Alighting unafraid;With sudden pipeAwakes the dreaming shade.
So long ago!Still, still my memory hearsIts silver flowAcross the sundering years,--Its roses glow,Ah, through what longing tears!
Words in this poem
- yarrow n.
- An American and European composite plant (Achillea Millefolium) with very finely dissected leaves and small white corymbed flowers. [OE. yarowe, yarwe, ýarowe, AS. gearwe; akin to D. gerw, OHG. garwa, garawa, G. garbe, schafgarbe, and perhaps to E. yare.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Stream is in the public domain. This text is taken from New Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #59897; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Charles G. D. Roberts, The Stream, in New Poems (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59897, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/roberts-new-poems/the-stream.html, id L11137.
Form and metre
The Stream is 24 lines in 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.0 syllables. 42% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic 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 ABABBA streamA · flowsB · gleamA · roseB · goesB · dreamA
- 2 ABAB glideA · noonB · tideA · juneB
- 3 ABABCDCD sleepsA · stormB · creepsA · warmB · snipeC · unafraidD · pipeC · shadeD
- 4 ABABAB agoA · hearsB · flowA · yearsB · glowA · tearsB
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I know a stream | 4 | ···· |
| Than which no lovelier flows. | 7 | ······· |
| Its banks a-gleam | 4 | ···· |
| With yarrow and wild rose, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Singing it goes | 4 | /˘·· |
| And shining through my dream. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Its waters glide | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Beneath the basking noon, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| A magic tide | 4 | ·/˘· |
| That keeps perpetual June. | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| There the light sleeps | 4 | ···· |
| Unstirred by any storm; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The wild mouse creeps | 4 | ···· |
| Through tall weeds hushed and warm; | 6 | ······ |
| And the shy snipe, | 4 | ···· |
| Alighting unafraid; | 6 | ˘/˘·˘/ |
| With sudden pipe | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Awakes the dreaming shade. | 6 | ˘/·/˘· |
| So long ago! | 4 | ··˘/ |
| Still, still my memory hears | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Its silver flow | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Across the sundering years,-- | 6 | ˘/·/˘· |
| Its roses glow, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Ah, through what longing tears! | 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.