When rosy plumelets tuft the larch
When rosy plumelets tuft the larch,And rarely pipes the mounted thrush;Or underneath the barren bushFlits by the sea-blue bird of March;
Come, wear the form by which I knowThy spirit in time among thy peers;The hope of unaccomplish’d yearsBe large and lucid round thy brow.
When summer’s hourly-mellowing changeMay breathe with many roses sweetUpon the thousand waves of wheat,That ripple round the lonely grange;
Come: not in watches of the night,But where the sunbeam broodeth warm,Come, beauteous in thine after form,And like a finer light in light.
Words in this poem
- grange n.
- A building for storing grain; a granary. [F. grange barn, LL. granea, from L. granum grain. See Grain a kernel.]
- sunbeam n.
- A beam or ray of the sun. [AS. sunnebeam.]
- beauteous a.
- Full of beauty; beautiful; very handsome. [Mostly poetic] -- Beau"te*ous*ly, adv. --
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
When rosy plumelets tuft the larch is in the public domain. This text is taken from In memoriam, Project Gutenberg ebook #70950; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Alfred Tennyson, When rosy plumelets tuft the larch, in In Memoriam A.H.H. (1850), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70950, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/tennyson-in-memoriam/section-89.html, id L18449.
Form and metre
When rosy plumelets tuft the larch is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABBA. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.1 syllables. 31% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 ABBA larchA · thrushB · bushB · marchA
- 2 ABBA knowA · peersB · yearsB · browA
- 3 ABBA changeA · sweetB · wheatB · grangeA
- 4 ABBA nightA · warmB · formB · lightA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| When rosy plumelets tuft the larch, | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| And rarely pipes the mounted thrush; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Or underneath the barren bush | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| Flits by the sea-blue bird of March; | 8 | ········ |
| Come, wear the form by which I know | 8 | ········ |
| Thy spirit in time among thy peers; | 8 | ·/······ |
| The hope of unaccomplish’d years | 8 | ········ |
| Be large and lucid round thy brow. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| When summer’s hourly-mellowing change | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| May breathe with many roses sweet | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Upon the thousand waves of wheat, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| That ripple round the lonely grange; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Come: not in watches of the night, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| But where the sunbeam broodeth warm, | 8 | ···/·/˘· |
| Come, beauteous in thine after form, | 9 | ·/˘˘····· |
| And like a finer light in light. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
On this poem
"beauteous in thine after form, And like a finer light in light."
Notes from the edition 5
Section introductions from Alfred Gatty, <i>A Key to Lord Tennyson's “In Memoriam”</i>, 4th ed. (George Bell & Sons, 1900; Project Gutenberg #36637). Line notes credited “[Tennyson]” are Tennyson's own notes; “[Hallam Tennyson]” marks a note that is wholly his son and editor's own explanatory bracket, not the poet's own words; “[Emily Tennyson]” marks the few notes signed by his wife. All three are from <i>The Works of Tennyson, Annotated by the Author</i>, ed. Hallam, Lord Tennyson, vol. 3 (Macmillan, 1908; Internet Archive worksoftennysona03tennuoft). Line notes credited “[Bradley]” are A. C. Bradley's, from <i>A Commentary on Tennyson's In Memoriam</i> (Macmillan, 1910; Internet Archive commentaryontenn00braduoft). All these number sections by the final, 131-section text, not the site's own 1850 numbering: from final XL to LVIII subtract one section number, from LX on subtract two, to reach the site's; the site prints the 129-section first edition of 1850 (see the work's own blurb), so two of the final text's numbered sections have no home here and are skipped.
- Stanza 1, line 4 Flits by the sea-blue bird of March. Darts the sea-shining bird of March
would best suit the Kingfisher. I used to see him in our brook first in March. He came up from the sea. aXnropfapos eta/>o$ opvis (Alcman). [Cf. Memoir^ ii. 4. — ED.] [Tennyson] - Stanza 1, line 2 l rarely.' The * rarely ' of Shakespeare and of Scott's
Sweet Robin sits on the bush,
Singing so rarely. [Bradley] - Stanza 1, line 4 ' sea-blue bird of March ': the kingfisher. Cf. The Progress of Spring:
And in her open palm a halcyon sits Patient — the secret splendour of the brooks.
The phrase is fully explained in the following passage: * As to " sea-blue birds " &c. defendant states that he was walking one day in March by a deep-banked brook, and under the leafless bushes he saw the kingfisher flitting or fleeting underneath him, and there came into his head a fragment of an old Greek lyric poet [Alkman], " aAi7r6p0vpos efapos fy>m," "The sea-purple or sea-shining bird of Spring," spoken of as the halcyon. Defendant cannot say whether the Greek halcyon be the same as the British kingfisher, but, as he never saw the kingfisher on this particular brook before March, he concludes that in that country, at least, they go down to the sea during the hard weather, and come up again with the Spring, for what says old Belon:
" Le Martinet-pescheur fait sa demeure En temps d'hiver au bord de I'oce'an, Et en estd sur la riviere en estan, Et de poisson se repaist a toute heure."
You see he puts " este," which I suppose stands for all the warmer weather.' Letter of Tennyson to Duke of Argyll, 1864, Memoir •, II. 4. The letter is perfectly decisive, yet by 1890 these details had faded from Tennyson's mind, and, though he * supposed' the bird was the kingfisher, he was willing to believe it was the blue tit (see Rawnsley's Memories of the Tennysons, p. 109). [Bradley] - Stanza 2, line 2 'in time': in the earthly life. Cf. xxvu. 6. [Bradley]
- Stanza 4, line 4 'light in light.' Cf. ' another night in night,' Recollec- tions of the Arabian Nights. [Bradley]
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.