A Lover's Envy
I envy every flower that blowsAlong the meadow where she goes,And every bird that sings to her,And every breeze that brings to herThe fragrance of the rose.
I envy every poet's rhymeThat moves her heart at eventime,And every tree that wears for herIts brightest bloom, and bears for herThe fruitage of its prime.
I envy every Southern nightThat paves her path with moonbeams white,And silvers all the leaves for her,And in their shadow weaves for herA dream of dear delight.
I envy none whose love requiresOf her a gift, a task that tires:I only long to live to her,I only ask to give to her,All that her heart desires.
Words in this poem
- fruitage n.
- Fruit, collectively; fruit, in general; fruitery. [F. fruitage.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Lover's Envy is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Henry Van Dyke, Project Gutenberg ebook #16229; 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 Van Dyke, A Lover's Envy, in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16229, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/van-dyke-poems/a-lover-s-envy.html, id L22812.
Form and metre
A Lover's Envy is 20 lines in 4 stanzas of 5 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABBA, the Limerick. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%).
See other limericks, 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 AABBA blowsA · goesA · herB · herB · roseA
- 2 AABBA rhymeA · eventimeA · herB · herB · primeA
- 3 AABBA nightA · whiteA · herB · herB · delightA
- 4 AABBA requiresA · tiresA · herB · herB · desiresA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I envy every flower that blows | 8 | ·/˘/˘/·· |
| Along the meadow where she goes, | 8 | ˘/·/···· |
| And every bird that sings to her, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And every breeze that brings to her | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The fragrance of the rose. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| I envy every poet's rhyme | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| That moves her heart at eventime, | 8 | ········ |
| And every tree that wears for her | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Its brightest bloom, and bears for her | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The fruitage of its prime. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| I envy every Southern night | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| That paves her path with moonbeams white, | 8 | ·····/·· |
| And silvers all the leaves for her, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And in their shadow weaves for her | 8 | ···/···· |
| A dream of dear delight. | 6 | ····˘/ |
| I envy none whose love requires | 9 | ·/˘···˘/˘ |
| Of her a gift, a task that tires: | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| I only long to live to her, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| I only ask to give to her, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| All that her heart desires. | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
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.