Uses
AH, from the niggard tree of TimeHow quickly fall the hours!It needs no touch of wind or rimeTo loose such facile flowers.
Drift of the dead year's harvesting,They clog to-morrow's way,Yet serve to shelter growths of springBeneath their warm decay,
Or, blent by pious hands with rareSweet savours of content,Surprise the soul's December airWith June's forgotten scent.
Words in this poem
- needs adv.
- Of necessity; necessarily; indispensably; -- often with must, and equivalent to of need. [Orig. gen. of need, used as an adverb. Cf. - wards.]
- rime n.
- A rent or long aperture; a chink; a fissure; a crack. Sir T. [L. rima.]
- facile a.
- Easy to be done or performed: not difficult; performable or attainable with little labor. [L. facilis, prop., capable of being done or made, hence, facile, easy, fr. facere to make, do: cf. F. facile. Srr Fact, and cf. Faculty.]
- blent p. p.
- Blinded. Also (Chaucer), 3d sing. pres. Blindeth.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Uses is in the public domain. This text is taken from Artemis to Actaeon, and Other Verses, Project Gutenberg ebook #4549; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edith Wharton, Uses, in Artemis to Actaeon, and Other Verse (1909), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #4549, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/wharton-artemis/uses.html, id L22249.
Form and metre
Uses is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%).
See other poems in common measure.
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 timeA · hoursB · rimeA · flowersB
- 2 ABAB harvestingA · wayB · springA · decayB
- 3 ABAB rareA · contentB · airA · scentB
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| AH, from the niggard tree of Time | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| How quickly fall the hours! | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| It needs no touch of wind or rime | 8 | ········ |
| To loose such facile flowers. | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Drift of the dead year's harvesting, | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| They clog to-morrow's way, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Yet serve to shelter growths of spring | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Beneath their warm decay, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Or, blent by pious hands with rare | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Sweet savours of content, | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| Surprise the soul's December air | 8 | ˘/··˘/˘· |
| With June's forgotten scent. | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
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.