Tree-Tops
There beyond my window ledge,Heaped against the sky, a hedgeOf huge and waving tree-tops standsWith multitudes of fluttering hands.
Wave they, beat they, to and fro,Never stillness may they know,Plunged by the wind and hurled and tornAnguished, purposeless, forlorn.
"O ferocious, O despairing,In huddled isolation faringThrough a scattered universe,Lost coins from the Almighty's purse!"
"No, below you do not seeThe firm foundations of the tree;Anchored to a rock beneathWe laugh in the hammering tempest's teeth.
"Boughs like men but burgeons areOn an adamantine star;Men are myriad blossoms onA staunch and cosmic skeleton."
Words in this poem
- stillness n.
- The quality or state of being still; quietness; silence; calmness; inactivity.
- purposeless a.
- Having no purpose or result; objectless. Bp. Hall.
- forlorn a.
- Deserted abandoned; lost. [OE., p.p. of forlesen to lose utterly, AS. forleósan (p.p. forloren); pref. for- + leósan (in comp.) to lose; cf. D. verliezen to lose, G. verlieren, Sw. förlor]
- despairing a.
- Feeling or expressing despair; hopeless.
- isolation n.
- The act of isolating, or the state of being isolated; insulation; separation; loneliness. Milman. [Cf. F. isolation.]
- anchored a.
- Held by an anchor; at anchor; held safely; as, an anchored bark; also, shaped like an anchor; forked; as, an anchored tongue.
- myriad n.
- The number of ten thousand; ten thousand persons or things. [Gr. myriade.]
- cosmic a.
- Pertaining to the universe, and having special reference to universal law or order, or to the one grand harmonious system of things; hence; harmonious; orderly. [Gr. kosmiko`s of the world, fr. ko`smos: cf. F. cosmique. See Cosmos.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Tree-Tops 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, Tree-Tops, in Poems: First Series (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #37860, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/squire-poems/tree-tops.html, id L23158.
Form and metre
Tree-Tops is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 4 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%).
See other poems in trochaic 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 AABB ledgeA · hedgeA · standsB · handsB
- 2 AABB froA · knowA · tornB · forlornB
- 3 --AA despairing · faring · universeA · purseA
- 4 AABB seeA · treeA · beneathB · teethB
- 5 AABB areA · starA · onB · skeletonB
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| There beyond my window ledge, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Heaped against the sky, a hedge | 8 | ·˘······ |
| Of huge and waving tree-tops stands | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| With multitudes of fluttering hands. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Wave they, beat they, to and fro, | 7 | ······· |
| Never stillness may they know, | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| Plunged by the wind and hurled and torn | 8 | ········ |
| Anguished, purposeless, forlorn. | 8 | /˘˘/˘˘˘/ |
| "O ferocious, O despairing, | 8 | ·˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| In huddled isolation faring | 9 | ·/˘·˘/˘/˘ |
| Through a scattered universe, | 8 | ··/˘˘/˘· |
| Lost coins from the Almighty's purse!" | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| "No, below you do not see | 7 | ······· |
| The firm foundations of the tree; | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| Anchored to a rock beneath | 8 | /˘˘····· |
| We laugh in the hammering tempest's teeth. | 9 | ····/˘/˘· |
| "Boughs like men but burgeons are | 7 | ····/˘· |
| On an adamantine star; | 7 | ······· |
| Men are myriad blossoms on | 8 | ··/˘˘/˘· |
| A staunch and cosmic skeleton." | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
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.