But One
The year has but one June, dear friend;The year has but one June;And when that perfect month doth end,The robin's song, though loud, though long,Seems never quite in tune.
The rose, though still its blushing faceBy bee and bird is seen,May yet have lost that subtle grace--That nameless spell the winds knowWhich makes it garden's queen.
Life's perfect June, love's red, red rose,Have burned and bloomed for me.Though still youth's summer sunlight glows;Though thou art kind, dear friend, I findI have no heart for thee.
Words in this poem
- nameless a.
- Without a name; not having been given a name; as, a nameless star.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
But One is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems of Passion, Project Gutenberg ebook #16776; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Ella Wheeler Wilcox, But One, in Poems of Passion (1883), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16776, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/wilcox-passion/but-one.html, id L22151.
Form and metre
But One is 15 lines in 3 stanzas of 5 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%).
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 ABA-B friendA · juneB · endA · long · tuneB
- 2 ABA-B faceA · seenB · graceA · know · queenB
- 3 ABA-B roseA · meB · glowsA · find · theeB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The year has but one June, dear friend; | 8 | ········ |
| The year has but one June; | 6 | ······ |
| And when that perfect month doth end, | 8 | ···˘/··· |
| The robin's song, though loud, though long, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Seems never quite in tune. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The rose, though still its blushing face | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| By bee and bird is seen, | 6 | ······ |
| May yet have lost that subtle grace-- | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| That nameless spell the winds know | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Which makes it garden's queen. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Life's perfect June, love's red, red rose, | 8 | ·˘/····· |
| Have burned and bloomed for me. | 6 | ······ |
| Though still youth's summer sunlight glows; | 8 | ···/˘/·· |
| Though thou art kind, dear friend, I find | 8 | ········ |
| I have no heart for thee. | 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.