When in the Rowan Tree
When in the rowan treeThe coloured light fades slowly,And the quiet dusk,All lilied, breathes of you,Then, Heart's Content,I feel your hair enfolding me,And tender comes the dark,Bringing me--you.
And when across the seaThe rose-dawn opens slowly,And the gold breaks, and the blue,All glad of you,Then, Heart's Reward,Red, red is your mouth for me,And life to me means love,And love means--you.
Words in this poem
- coloured a.
- Having color; tinged; dyed; painted; stained.
- lilied a.
- Covered with, or having many, lilies.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
When in the Rowan Tree 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, When in the Rowan Tree, in New Poems (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59897, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/roberts-new-poems/when-in-the-rowan-tree.html, id L11131.
Form and metre
When in the Rowan Tree is 16 lines in 2 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.7 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 12% 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 A--B-A-B treeA · slowly · dusk · youB · content · meA · dark · youB
- 2 A-BB-A-B seaA · slowly · blueB · youB · reward · meA · love · youB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| When in the rowan tree | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The coloured light fades slowly, | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| And the quiet dusk, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| All lilied, breathes of you, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Then, Heart's Content, | 4 | ··/˘ |
| I feel your hair enfolding me, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| And tender comes the dark, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Bringing me--you. | 4 | /˘·· |
| And when across the sea | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| The rose-dawn opens slowly, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| And the gold breaks, and the blue, | 7 | ······· |
| All glad of you, | 4 | ···· |
| Then, Heart's Reward, | 4 | ··˘/ |
| Red, red is your mouth for me, | 7 | ······· |
| And life to me means love, | 6 | ······ |
| And love means--you. | 4 | ···· |
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.