Summer
Winter is cold-heartedSpring is yea and nay,Autumn is a weather-cockBlown every way:Summer days for meWhen every leaf is on its tree;
When Robin's not a beggar,And Jenny Wren's a bride,And larks hang singing, singing, singing,Over the wheat-fields wide,And anchored lilies ride,And the pendulum spiderSwings from side to side,
And blue-black beetles transact business,And gnats fly in a host,And furry caterpillars hastenThat no time be lost,And moths grow fat and thrive,And ladybirds arrive.
Before green apples blush,Before green nuts embrown,Why, one day in the countryIs worth a month in town;Is worth a day and a yearOf the dusty, musty, lag-last fashionThat days drone elsewhere.
Words in this poem
- jenny n.
- A familiar or pet form of the proper name Jane.
- anchored a.
- Held by an anchor; at anchor; held safely; as, an anchored bark; also, shaped like an anchor; forked; as, an anchored tongue.
- furry a.
- Covered with fur; dressed in fur. [From Fur.]
- embrown v. t.
- To give a brown color to; to imbrown. [Pref. em- (L. in) + brown.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Summer 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, Summer, in Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-goblin-market/summer.html, id L04316.
Form and metre
Summer is 26 lines in 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.6 syllables. 8 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 31% 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-ABB hearted · nayA · cock · wayA · meB · treeB
- 2 -A-AA-A beggar · brideA · singing · wideA · rideA · spider · sideA
- 3 ----AA business · host · hasten · lost · thriveA · arriveA
- 4 -A-ABAB blush · embrownA · country · townA · yearB · fashionA · elsewhereB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Winter is cold-hearted | 6 | /˘··/˘ |
| Spring is yea and nay, | 5 | ····· |
| Autumn is a weather-cock | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Blown every way: | 5 | ·/˘˘· |
| Summer days for me | 5 | /˘··· |
| When every leaf is on its tree; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| When Robin's not a beggar, | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| And Jenny Wren's a bride, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And larks hang singing, singing, singing, | 9 | ···/˘/˘/˘ |
| Over the wheat-fields wide, | 6 | ······ |
| And anchored lilies ride, | 7 | ·/˘˘/˘· |
| And the pendulum spider | 7 | ··/˘˘/˘ |
| Swings from side to side, | 5 | ····· |
| And blue-black beetles transact business, | 9 | ···/˘˘//˘ |
| And gnats fly in a host, | 6 | ······ |
| And furry caterpillars hasten | 9 | ·/˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| That no time be lost, | 5 | ····· |
| And moths grow fat and thrive, | 6 | ······ |
| And ladybirds arrive. | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| Before green apples blush, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Before green nuts embrown, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Why, one day in the country | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Is worth a month in town; | 6 | ······ |
| Is worth a day and a year | 7 | ······· |
| Of the dusty, musty, lag-last fashion | 10 | ··/˘/˘··/˘ |
| That days drone elsewhere. | 5 | ···/· |
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.