Hope Deferred
Bring no more flowers and books and precious things!O speak no more of our beloved Art,Of summer haunts,—melodious wanderingsIn leafy refuge from this weary mart!Surely such thoughts were dear unto my heart;Now every word a newer sadness brings!Thus oft some forest-bird, caged far apartFrom verdurous freedom, droops his careless wings,Nor craves for more than food from day to day;So long bereft of wildwood joy and song,Hopeless of all he dared to hope so long,The music born within him dies away;Even the song he loved becomes a pain,Full-freighted with a yearning all in vain.
Words in this poem
- mart v. t.
- To buy or sell in, or as in, a mart.
- sadness n.
- Heaviness; firmness.
- caged a.
- Confined in, or as in, a cage; like a cage or prison.
- verdurous a.
- Covered with verdure; clothed with the fresh green of vegetation; verdured; verdant; as, verdurous pastures.
- wildwood n.
- A wild or unfrequented wood. Also used adjectively; as, wildwood flowers; wildwood echoes. Burns.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Hope Deferred is in the public domain. This text is taken from The poetical works of Edmund Clarence Stedman, Project Gutenberg ebook #70763; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edmund Clarence Stedman, Hope Deferred, in The Poetical Works of Edmund Clarence Stedman (1860–1897), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70763, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/stedman-poems/hope-deferred.html, id L10654.
Form and metre
Hope Deferred is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABBABACDDCEE. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 88% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 14% 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 ABABBABACDDCEE thingsA · artB · wanderingsA · martB · heartB · bringsA · apartB · wingsA · dayC · songD · longD · awayC · painE · vainE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Bring no more flowers and books and precious things! | 10 | ···/···/˘· |
| O speak no more of our beloved Art, | 10 | ·····/˘˘/· |
| Of summer haunts,—melodious wanderings | 11 | ·/˘·˘/˘˘/˘˘ |
| In leafy refuge from this weary mart! | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Surely such thoughts were dear unto my heart; | 10 | /˘········ |
| Now every word a newer sadness brings! | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Thus oft some forest-bird, caged far apart | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| From verdurous freedom, droops his careless wings, | 11 | ·/˘˘/˘··/˘· |
| Nor craves for more than food from day to day; | 10 | ·········· |
| So long bereft of wildwood joy and song, | 10 | ··˘/·/···· |
| Hopeless of all he dared to hope so long, | 10 | /˘········ |
| The music born within him dies away; | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| Even the song he loved becomes a pain, | 10 | /˘····˘/·· |
| Full-freighted with a yearning all in vain. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
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.