A Summer Wish
Live all thy sweet life thro',Sweet Rose, dew-sprent,Drop down thine evening dewTo gather it anewWhen day is bright:I fancy thou wast meantChiefly to give delight.
Sing in the silent sky,Glad soaring bird;Sing out thy notes on highTo sunbeam straying byOr passing cloud;Heedless if thou art heardSing thy full song aloud.
Oh that it were with meAs with the flower;Blooming on its own treeFor butterfly and beeIts summer morns:That I might bloom mine hourA rose in spite of thorns.
Oh that my work were doneAs birds' that soarRejoicing in the sun:That when my time is runAnd daylight too,I so might rest once moreCool with refreshing dew.
Words in this poem
- wast
- The second person singular of the verb be, in the indicative mood, imperfect tense; -- now used only in solemn or poetical style.
- sunbeam n.
- A beam or ray of the sun. [AS. sunnebeam.]
- aloud adv.
- With a loud voice, or great noise; loudly; audibly. [Pref. a- + loud.]
- daylight n.
- The light of day as opposed to the darkness of night; the light of the sun, as opposed to that of the moon or to artificial light.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Summer Wish is in the public domain. This text is taken from Goblin Market, The Prince's Progress, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #16950; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Christina Rossetti, A Summer Wish, in Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-goblin-market/a-summer-wish.html, id L04251.
Form and metre
A Summer Wish is 28 lines in 4 stanzas of 7 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAACBC, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.5 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 50% 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 -ABBCAC thro · sprentA · dewB · anewB · brightC · meantA · delightC
- 2 ABAACBC skyA · birdB · highA · byA · cloudC · heardB · aloudC
- 3 ABAACBC meA · flowerB · treeA · beeA · mornsC · hourB · thornsC
- 4 ABAACBC doneA · soarB · sunA · runA · tooC · moreB · dewC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Live all thy sweet life thro', | 6 | ······ |
| Sweet Rose, dew-sprent, | 4 | ···· |
| Drop down thine evening dew | 6 | ···/˘· |
| To gather it anew | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| When day is bright: | 4 | ···· |
| I fancy thou wast meant | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Chiefly to give delight. | 6 | /˘··˘/ |
| Sing in the silent sky, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Glad soaring bird; | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Sing out thy notes on high | 6 | ······ |
| To sunbeam straying by | 6 | ·/·/˘· |
| Or passing cloud; | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Heedless if thou art heard | 6 | /˘···· |
| Sing thy full song aloud. | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Oh that it were with me | 6 | ······ |
| As with the flower; | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Blooming on its own tree | 6 | /˘···· |
| For butterfly and bee | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Its summer morns: | 4 | ·/˘· |
| That I might bloom mine hour | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| A rose in spite of thorns. | 6 | ······ |
| Oh that my work were done | 6 | ······ |
| As birds' that soar | 4 | ···· |
| Rejoicing in the sun: | 6 | ˘/˘··· |
| That when my time is run | 6 | ······ |
| And daylight too, | 4 | ·/·· |
| I so might rest once more | 6 | ······ |
| Cool with refreshing dew. | 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.