Love, like a bird, hath perch'd upon a spray
Love, like a bird, hath perch'd upon a sprayFor thee and me to hearken what he sings.Contented, he forgets to fly away;But hush!... remind not Eros of his wings.
Words in this poem
- remind v. t.
- To put (one) in mind of something; to bring to the remembrance of; to bring to the notice or consideration of (a person).
- eros n.
- Love; the god of love; -- by earlier writers represented as one of the first and creative gods, by later writers as the son of Aphrodite, equivalent to the Latin god Cupid.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Love, like a bird, hath perch'd upon a spray is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of William Watson, Project Gutenberg ebook #13179; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Watson, Love, like a bird, hath perch'd upon a spray, in The Poems of William Watson (1892–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #13179, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/watson-poems/love-like-a-bird-hath-perch-d-upon-a-spray.html, id L26223.
Form and metre
Love, like a bird, hath perch'd upon a spray is 4 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABAB. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter.
See other poems in iambic 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 ABAB sprayA · singsB · awayA · wingsB
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Love, like a bird, hath perch'd upon a spray | 10 | ·········· |
| For thee and me to hearken what he sings. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Contented, he forgets to fly away; | 10 | ˘/˘·˘/··˘/ |
| But hush!... remind not Eros of his wings. | 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.