Think Not All Is Over
THINK not, when the wailing winds of autumnDrive the shivering leaflets from the tree,--Think not all is over: spring returneth,Buds and leaves and blossoms thou shalt see.
Think not, when the earth lies cold and sealed,And the weary birds above her mourn,--Think not all is over: God still liveth,Songs and sunshine shall again return.
Think not, when thy heart is waste and dreary,When thy cherished hopes lie chill and sere,--Think not all is over: God still loveth,He will wipe away thy every tear.
Weeping for a night alone endureth,God at last shall bring a morning hour;In the frozen buds of every winterSleep the blossoms of a future flower.
Words in this poem
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
- sunshine n.
- The light of the sun, or the place where it shines; the direct rays of the sun, the place where they fall, or the warmth and light which they give.
- 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,]
- dreary a.
- Sorrowful; distressful. [OE. dreori, dreri, AS. dreórig, sad; akin to G. traurig, and prob. to AS. dreósan to fall, Goth. driusan. Cf. Dross, Drear, Drizzle, Drowse.]
- sere n.
- Claw; talon. Chapman. [F. serre.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Think Not All Is Over is in the public domain. This text is taken from Religious Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #44778; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Harriet Beecher Stowe, Think Not All Is Over, in Religious Poems (1867), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #44778, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/stowe-religious-poems/think-not-all-is-over.html, id L22713.
Form and metre
Think Not All Is Over is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is trochaic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
See other poems in trochaic 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 -A-A autumn · treeA · returneth · seeA
- 3 -A-A dreary · sereA · loveth · tearA
- 4 -A-A endureth · hourA · winter · flowerA
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| THINK not, when the wailing winds of autumn | 10 | ····/˘··/˘ |
| Drive the shivering leaflets from the tree,-- | 10 | ··/˘˘/˘··· |
| Think not all is over: spring returneth, | 10 | ·······˘/˘ |
| Buds and leaves and blossoms thou shalt see. | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| Think not, when the earth lies cold and sealed, | 10 | ·········˘ |
| And the weary birds above her mourn,-- | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| Think not all is over: God still liveth, | 10 | ·········· |
| Songs and sunshine shall again return. | 9 | ··/··˘/˘/ |
| Think not, when thy heart is waste and dreary, | 10 | ········/˘ |
| When thy cherished hopes lie chill and sere,-- | 10 | ··/˘˘····· |
| Think not all is over: God still loveth, | 10 | ·········· |
| He will wipe away thy every tear. | 10 | ···˘/·/˘˘· |
| Weeping for a night alone endureth, | 10 | /˘···˘/˘/˘ |
| God at last shall bring a morning hour; | 10 | ······/˘/˘ |
| In the frozen buds of every winter | 11 | ··/˘··/˘˘/˘ |
| Sleep the blossoms of a future flower. | 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.