Acacia Tree
All the trees and bushes of the gardenDisplay their bright new green.
But above them all, still bare,The great old acacia stands,His solitary bent black branches starkAgainst the garden and the sky.
It is as though those other thoughtless shrubs,The winter over, hastened to rejoiceAnd clothe themselves in spring's new finery,Heedless of all the iron time behind them.
But he, older and wiser, stronger and sadder of heart,Remembers still the cruel winter, and knowsThat in some months that death will come again;And, for a season, lonelily meditatesAbove his lighter companions' frivolity.
Till some late sunny day when, breaking thought,He'll suddenly yield to the fickle persuasive sun,And over all his rough and writhing boughsAnd tiniest twigsWill spread a pale green mist of feathery leaf,More delicate, more touching than all the verdureOf the younger, slenderer, gracefuller plants around.
And then, when the leaves have grownTill the boughs can scarcely be seen through their crowded plumes,There will softly glimmer, scattered upon him, blooms,Ivory-white in the green, weightlessly hanging.
Words in this poem
- stark adv.
- Wholly; entirely; absolutely; quite; as, stark mind.
- finery n.
- Fineness; beauty.
- frivolity n.
- The condition or quality of being frivolous; also, acts or habits of trifling; unbecoming levity of disposition. [Cg. F. frivolité. See Frivolous.]
- sunny a.
- Of or pertaining to the sun; proceeding from, or resembling the sun; hence, shining; bright; brilliant; radiant.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Acacia Tree is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems - First Series, Project Gutenberg ebook #37860; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Collings Squire, Acacia Tree, in Poems: First Series (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #37860, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/squire-poems/acacia-tree.html, id L23193.
Form and metre
Acacia Tree is 26 lines in 6 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 gardenA · greenA
- 6 -AA- grown · plumesA · bloomsA · hanging
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| All the trees and bushes of the garden | 10 | ····/˘··/˘ |
| Display their bright new green. | 6 | ˘/···· |
| But above them all, still bare, | 7 | ······· |
| The great old acacia stands, | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| His solitary bent black branches stark | 10 | ·/˘·˘··/˘· |
| Against the garden and the sky. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| It is as though those other thoughtless shrubs, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| The winter over, hastened to rejoice | 9 | ·/˘·/˘·˘/ |
| And clothe themselves in spring's new finery, | 9 | ··˘/···/˘ |
| Heedless of all the iron time behind them. | 10 | /˘···/···· |
| But he, older and wiser, stronger and sadder of heart, | 13 | ··/˘·//˘·/˘·· |
| Remembers still the cruel winter, and knows | 10 | ˘/˘··//˘·· |
| That in some months that death will come again; | 10 | ········˘/ |
| And, for a season, lonelily meditates | 12 | ···/˘····/˘· |
| Above his lighter companions' frivolity. | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘/˘ |
| Till some late sunny day when, breaking thought, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| He'll suddenly yield to the fickle persuasive sun, | 12 | ·/˘···/˘˘/˘· |
| And over all his rough and writhing boughs | 9 | ······/˘· |
| And tiniest twigs | 5 | ·/˘˘· |
| Will spread a pale green mist of feathery leaf, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| More delicate, more touching than all the verdure | 11 | ·/˘·/˘···/˘ |
| Of the younger, slenderer, gracefuller plants around. | 14 | ··/˘·········· |
| And then, when the leaves have grown | 7 | ······· |
| Till the boughs can scarcely be seen through their crowded plumes, | 13 | ····/˘····/˘· |
| There will softly glimmer, scattered upon him, blooms, | 12 | ··/˘/˘/˘···· |
| Ivory-white in the green, weightlessly hanging. | 11 | /˘·······/˘ |
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.