The Trailing Arbutus
John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 (Haverhill) – 1892 (Hampton Falls)
I wandered lonely where the pine-trees made
Against the bitter East their barricade,
And, guided by its sweet
Perfume, I found, within a narrow dell,
The trailing spring flower tinted like a shell
Amid dry leaves and mosses at my feet.
From under dead boughs, for whose loss the pines
Moaned ceaseless overhead, the blossoming vines
Lifted their glad surprise,
While yet the bluebird smoothed in leafless trees
His feathers ruffled by the chill sea-breeze,
And snow-drifts lingered under April skies.
As, pausing, o'er the lonely flower I bent,
I thought of lives thus lowly, clogged and pent,
Which yet find room,
Through care and cumber, coldness and decay,
To lend a sweetness to the ungenial day
And make the sad earth happier for their bloom.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 23, 2023
- 38 sec read
- 149 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | AABCCB DDEFFE GGHIIH |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 738 |
Words | 128 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6 |
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"The Trailing Arbutus" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 8 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/23208/the-trailing-arbutus>.
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