A Summer Shower
Welcome, rain or tempestFrom yon airy powers,We have languished for themMany sultry hours,And earth is sick and wan, and pines with all her flowers.
What have they been doingIn the burning June?Riding with the genii?Visiting the moon?Or sleeping on the ice amid an arctic noon?
Bring they with them jewelsFrom the sunset lands?What are these they scatterWith such lavish hands?There are no brighter gems in Raolconda's sands.
Pattering on the gravel,Dropping from the eaves,Glancing in the grass, andTinkling on the leaves,They flash the liquid pearls as flung from fairy sieves.
Meanwhile, unreluctant,Earth like Danaë lies;Listen! is it fancy,That beneath us sighs,As that warm lap receives the largesse of the skies?
Jove, it is, descendethIn those crystal rills;And this world-wide tremorIs a pulse that thrillsTo a god's life infused through veins of velvet hills.
Wait, thou jealous sunshine,Break not on their bliss;Earth will blush in rosesMany a day for this,And bend a brighter brow beneath thy burning kiss.
Words in this poem
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- glancing a.
- Shooting, as light.
- meanwhile n.
- The intervening time; as, in the meantime (or mean time).
- largesse n.
- Liberality; generosity; bounty. [F. largesse, fr. large. See Large, a.]
- jove n.
- The chief divinity of the ancient Romans; Jupiter. [L. Jupiter, gen. Jovis, OL. Jovis, nom. & gen. for Djovis; akin to E. Tuesday. See Tuesday, and cf. Jupiter.]
- 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.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Summer Shower is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems of Henry Timrod; with Memoir, Project Gutenberg ebook #845; 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 Timrod, A Summer Shower, in Poems (1860–1867), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #845, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/timrod-poems/a-summer-shower.html, id L10495.
Form and metre
A Summer Shower is 35 lines in 7 stanzas of 5 lines each. The metre is trochaic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.9 syllables. 11 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 29% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic trimeter.
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-AA tempest · powersA · them · hoursA · flowersA
- 2 -A-AA doing · juneA · genii · moonA · noonA
- 3 -A-AA jewels · landsA · scatter · handsA · sandsA
- 4 -A-A- gravel · eavesA · and · leavesA · sieves
- 5 -A-AA unreluctant · liesA · fancy · sighsA · skiesA
- 6 -A-AA descendeth · rillsA · tremor · thrillsA · hillsA
- 7 -A-AA sunshine · blissA · roses · thisA · kissA
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Welcome, rain or tempest | 6 | /˘··/˘ |
| From yon airy powers, | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| We have languished for them | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| Many sultry hours, | 6 | /˘/˘/˘ |
| And earth is sick and wan, and pines with all her flowers. | 12 | ···········/ |
| What have they been doing | 6 | ····/˘ |
| In the burning June? | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Riding with the genii? | 6 | /˘···· |
| Visiting the moon? | 5 | /˘˘·· |
| Or sleeping on the ice amid an arctic noon? | 12 | ·/˘···˘/·/˘· |
| Bring they with them jewels | 6 | ····/˘ |
| From the sunset lands? | 5 | ··/·· |
| What are these they scatter | 6 | ····/˘ |
| With such lavish hands? | 5 | ··/˘· |
| There are no brighter gems in Raolconda's sands. | 10 | ···/······ |
| Pattering on the gravel, | 7 | /˘˘··/˘ |
| Dropping from the eaves, | 5 | /˘··· |
| Glancing in the grass, and | 6 | /˘···· |
| Tinkling on the leaves, | 6 | /˘˘··· |
| They flash the liquid pearls as flung from fairy sieves. | 12 | ···/˘····/˘· |
| Meanwhile, unreluctant, | 6 | /····· |
| Earth like Danaë lies; | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Listen! is it fancy, | 6 | /˘··/˘ |
| That beneath us sighs, | 5 | ····· |
| As that warm lap receives the largesse of the skies? | 12 | ····˘/·˘/··· |
| Jove, it is, descendeth | 6 | ···˘/˘ |
| In those crystal rills; | 5 | ··/˘· |
| And this world-wide tremor | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Is a pulse that thrills | 5 | ····· |
| To a god's life infused through veins of velvet hills. | 12 | ····˘/···/˘· |
| Wait, thou jealous sunshine, | 6 | ··/˘/· |
| Break not on their bliss; | 5 | ····· |
| Earth will blush in roses | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Many a day for this, | 6 | /˘···· |
| And bend a brighter brow beneath thy burning kiss. | 11 | ···/····/˘· |
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.