Mist
Low-anchored cloud,Newfoundland air,Fountain-head and source of rivers,Dew-cloth, dream-drapery,And napkin spread by fays;Drifting meadow of the air,Where bloom the daisied banks and violets,And in whose fenny labyrinthThe bittern booms and heron wades;Spirit of lakes and seas and rivers,--Bear only perfumes and the scentOf healing herbs to just men’s fields.
Words in this poem
- napkin n.
- A little towel, or small cloth, esp. one for wiping the fingers and mouth at table. [Dim. of OF. nape a tablecloth, cloth, F. nappe, L. mappa. See Napery.]
- daisied a.
- Full of daisies; adorned with daisies.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Mist is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems of Nature, Project Gutenberg ebook #59988; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Henry David Thoreau, Mist, in Poems of Nature (1895), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #59988, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/thoreau-poems/mist.html, id L02817.
Form and metre
Mist is 12 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 86% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.1 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 17% 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 -AB--A---B-- cloud · airA · riversB · drapery · fays · airA · violets · labyrinth · wades · riversB · scent · fields
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Low-anchored cloud, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Newfoundland air, | 4 | /˘˘· |
| Fountain-head and source of rivers, | 8 | /˘····/˘ |
| Dew-cloth, dream-drapery, | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| And napkin spread by fays; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Drifting meadow of the air, | 7 | /˘/···· |
| Where bloom the daisied banks and violets, | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| And in whose fenny labyrinth | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| The bittern booms and heron wades; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Spirit of lakes and seas and rivers,-- | 9 | /˘·····/˘ |
| Bear only perfumes and the scent | 8 | ·/˘˘/··· |
| Of healing herbs to just men’s fields. | 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.