An Apple Gathering
I plucked pink blossoms from mine apple-treeAnd wore them all that evening in my hair:Then in due season when I went to seeI found no apples there.
With dangling basket all along the grassAs I had come I went the selfsame track:My neighbours mocked me while they saw me passSo empty-handed back.
Lilian and Lilias smiled in trudging by,Their heaped-up basket teased me like a jeer;Sweet-voiced they sang beneath the sunset sky,Their mother's home was near.
Plump Gertrude passed me with her basket full,A stronger hand than hers helped it along;A voice talked with her through the shadows coolMore sweet to me than song.
Ah Willie, Willie, was my love less worthThan apples with their green leaves piled above?I counted rosiest apples on the earthOf far less worth than love.
So once it was with me you stooped to talkLaughing and listening in this very lane:To think that by this way we used to walkWe shall not walk again!
I let my neighbours pass me, ones and twosAnd groups; the latest said the night grew chill,And hastened: but I loitered, while the dewsFell fast I loitered still.
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- selfsame a.
- Precisely the same; the very same; identical. [Self, a. + same.]
- piled a.
- Having a pile or point; pointed. [From 2d Pile.]
- 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
An Apple Gathering 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, An Apple Gathering, in Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-goblin-market/an-apple-gathering.html, id L04252.
Form and metre
An Apple Gathering is 28 lines in 7 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 6 of its 7 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.0 syllables. 39% 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 ABAB treeA · hairB · seeA · thereB
- 2 ABAB grassA · trackB · passA · backB
- 3 ABAB byA · jeerB · skyA · nearB
- 4 -A-A full · alongA · cool · songA
- 5 ABAB worthA · aboveB · earthA · loveB
- 6 ABAB talkA · laneB · walkA · againB
- 7 ABAB twosA · chillB · dewsA · stillB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I plucked pink blossoms from mine apple-tree | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And wore them all that evening in my hair: | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Then in due season when I went to see | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| I found no apples there. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| With dangling basket all along the grass | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/·· |
| As I had come I went the selfsame track: | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| My neighbours mocked me while they saw me pass | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| So empty-handed back. | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Lilian and Lilias smiled in trudging by, | 10 | /˘·/˘··/˘· |
| Their heaped-up basket teased me like a jeer; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Sweet-voiced they sang beneath the sunset sky, | 10 | ·······/·· |
| Their mother's home was near. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Plump Gertrude passed me with her basket full, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| A stronger hand than hers helped it along; | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| A voice talked with her through the shadows cool | 10 | ·······/·· |
| More sweet to me than song. | 6 | ······ |
| Ah Willie, Willie, was my love less worth | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Than apples with their green leaves piled above? | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| I counted rosiest apples on the earth | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| Of far less worth than love. | 6 | ······ |
| So once it was with me you stooped to talk | 10 | ·········· |
| Laughing and listening in this very lane: | 10 | /˘·/˘··/˘· |
| To think that by this way we used to walk | 10 | ·········· |
| We shall not walk again! | 6 | ····˘/ |
| I let my neighbours pass me, ones and twos | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And groups; the latest said the night grew chill, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And hastened: but I loitered, while the dews | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Fell fast I loitered still. | 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.