Amaryllis
Once, when I wandered in the woods alone,An old man tottered up to me and said,"Come, friend, and see the grave that I have madeFor Amaryllis." There was in the toneOf his complaint such quaver and such moanThat I took pity on him and obeyed,And long stood looking where his hands had laidAn ancient woman, shrunk to skin and bone.
Far out beyond the forest I could hearThe calling of loud progress, and the boldIncessant scream of commerce ringing clear;But though the trumpets of the world were glad,It made me lonely and it made me sadTo think that Amaryllis had grown old.
Words in this poem
- amaryllis n.
- A pastoral sweetheart.
- trumpets n.
- A plant (Sarracenia flava) with long, hollow leaves.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Amaryllis is in the public domain. This text is taken from Children of the Night, Project Gutenberg ebook #313; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edwin Arlington Robinson, Amaryllis, in The Children of the Night (1897), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #313, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/robinson-children-of-night/amaryllis.html, id L07994.
Form and metre
Amaryllis is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 50% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See 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 A-BAABBA aloneA · said · madeB · toneA · moanA · obeyedB · laidB · boneA
- 2 ABACCB hearA · boldB · clearA · gladC · sadC · oldB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Once, when I wandered in the woods alone, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| An old man tottered up to me and said, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| "Come, friend, and see the grave that I have made | 10 | ·········· |
| For Amaryllis." There was in the tone | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Of his complaint such quaver and such moan | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| That I took pity on him and obeyed, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| And long stood looking where his hands had laid | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| An ancient woman, shrunk to skin and bone. | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Far out beyond the forest I could hear | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| The calling of loud progress, and the bold | 10 | ·/˘··/···· |
| Incessant scream of commerce ringing clear; | 10 | ˘/˘··/˘/˘· |
| But though the trumpets of the world were glad, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| It made me lonely and it made me sad | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| To think that Amaryllis had grown old. | 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.