Daisy
The dayseye hugging the earthin August, ha! Spring isgone down in purple,weeds stand high in the corn,the rainbeaten furrowis clotted with sorreland crabgrass, thebranch is black underthe heavy mass of the leaves--The sun is upon aslender green stemribbed lengthwise.He lies on his back--it is a woman also--he regards his formermajesty andround the yellow center,split and creviced and done intominute flowerheads, he sends outhis twenty rays--a littleand the wind is among themto grow cool there!
One turns the thing overin his hand and looksat it from the rear: brownedged,green and pointed scalesarmor his yellow.But turn and turn,the crisp petals remainbrief, translucent, greenfastened,barely touching at the edges:blades of limpid seashell.
Words in this poem
- creviced a.
- Having a crevice or crevices; as, a creviced structure for storing ears of corn.
- seashell n.
- The shell of any marine mollusk.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Daisy is in the public domain. This text is taken from Sour Grapes: A Book of Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #35667; 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 Carlos Williams, Daisy, in Sour Grapes (1921), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #35667, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/williams-sour-grapes/daisy.html, id L01172.
Form and metre
Daisy is 32 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is trochaic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.8 syllables. 9 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 56% 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--AB------A--B- earth · is · purple · corn · furrow · sorrel · theA · under · leaves · aA · stemB · lengthwise · back · also · former · and · center · intoA · out · little · themB · there
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The dayseye hugging the earth | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| in August, ha! Spring is | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| gone down in purple, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| weeds stand high in the corn, | 6 | ······ |
| the rainbeaten furrow | 6 | ····/˘ |
| is clotted with sorrel | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| and crabgrass, the | 4 | ···· |
| branch is black under | 5 | ····· |
| the heavy mass of the leaves-- | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| The sun is upon a | 6 | ······ |
| slender green stem | 4 | /˘·· |
| ribbed lengthwise. | 3 | ·/· |
| He lies on his back-- | 5 | ····· |
| it is a woman also-- | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| he regards his former | 6 | ·˘/·/˘ |
| majesty and | 4 | /˘˘· |
| round the yellow center, | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| split and creviced and done into | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| minute flowerheads, he sends out | 8 | /˘······ |
| his twenty rays--a little | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| and the wind is among them | 7 | ······· |
| to grow cool there! | 4 | ···· |
| One turns the thing over | 6 | ······ |
| in his hand and looks | 5 | ····· |
| at it from the rear: brownedged, | 7 | ······· |
| green and pointed scales | 5 | ··/˘· |
| armor his yellow. | 5 | /˘·/˘ |
| But turn and turn, | 4 | ···· |
| the crisp petals remain | 6 | ··/˘˘/ |
| brief, translucent, greenfastened, | 7 | ·˘/˘··· |
| barely touching at the edges: | 8 | /˘/˘··/˘ |
| blades of limpid seashell. | 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.