Leonora
They have made for Leonora this low dwelling in the ground,And with cedar they have woven the four walls round.Like a little dryad hiding she’ll be wrapped all in green,Better kept and longer valued than by ways that would have been.
They will come with many roses in the early afternoon,They will come with pinks and lilies and with Leonora soon;And as long as beauty’s garments over beauty’s limbs are thrown,There’ll be lilies that are liars, and the rose will have its own.
There will be a wondrous quiet in the house that they have made,And to-night will be a darkness in the place where she’ll be laid;But the builders, looking forward into time, could only seeDarker nights for Leonora than to-night shall ever be.
Words in this poem
- dryad n.
- A wood nymph; a nymph whose life was bound up with that of her tree. [L. dryas, pl. dryades, Gr. Tree.]
- afternoon n.
- The part of the day which follows noon, between noon and evening.
- wondrous adv.
- In a wonderful or surprising manner or degree; wonderfully. [OE. wonders, adv. (later also adj.). See Wonder, n., and cf. -wards.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Leonora is in the public domain. This text is taken from The town down the river, Project Gutenberg ebook #76699; 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, Leonora, in The Town Down the River (1910), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #76699, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/robinson-town-down-river/leonora.html, id L17198.
Form and metre
Leonora is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is trochaic octameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 14.3 syllables. 8% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic octameter.
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 AA-- groundA · roundA · green · been
- 2 AABB afternoonA · soonA · thrownB · ownB
- 3 AABB madeA · laidA · seeB · beB
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 octameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| They have made for Leonora this low dwelling in the ground, | 15 | ·····˘/˘··/˘··· |
| And with cedar they have woven the four walls round. | 12 | ··/˘··/˘···· |
| Like a little dryad hiding she’ll be wrapped all in green, | 14 | ··/˘/˘/˘······ |
| Better kept and longer valued than by ways that would have been. | 15 | /˘··/˘/˘······· |
| They will come with many roses in the early afternoon, | 14 | ····//˘··/˘·˘/ |
| They will come with pinks and lilies and with Leonora soon; | 15 | ······/˘···˘/˘· |
| And as long as beauty’s garments over beauty’s limbs are thrown, | 14 | ····/˘/˘·/˘··· |
| There’ll be lilies that are liars, and the rose will have its own. | 15 | /˘·/˘··/······· |
| There will be a wondrous quiet in the house that they have made, | 14 | ····/˘/······· |
| And to-night will be a darkness in the place where she’ll be laid; | 15 | ······/˘······· |
| But the builders, looking forward into time, could only see | 15 | ··/˘/˘/˘····/˘· |
| Darker nights for Leonora than to-night shall ever be. | 14 | /˘···˘/˘····/· |
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