Analysis of To Ellen, At The South

Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803 (Boston) – 1882 (Concord)



The green grass is growing,
The morning wind is in it,
'Tis a tune worth the knowing,
Though it change every minute.

'Tis a tune of the spring,
Every year plays it over,
To the robin on the wing,
To the pausing lover.

O'er ten thousand thousand acres
Goes light the nimble zephyr,
The flowers, tiny feet of shakers,
Worship him ever.

Hark to the winning sound!
They summon thee, dearest,
Saying; "We have drest for thee the ground,
Nor yet thou appearest.

"O hasten, 'tis our time,
Ere yet the red summer
Scorch our delicate prime,
Loved of bee, the tawny hummer.

"O pride of thy race!
Sad in sooth it were to ours,
If our brief tribe miss thy face,—
We pour New England flowers.

"Fairest! choose the fairest members
Of our lithe society;
June's glories and September's
Show our love and piety.

"Thou shalt command us all,
April's cowslip, summer's clover
To the gentian in the fall,
Blue-eyed pet of blue-eyed lover.

"O come, then, quickly come,
We are budding, we are blowing,
And the wind which we perfume
Sings a tune that's worth thy knowing."


Scheme ABAX ACAC DCDC EXEB FCFC GDGD DHDH ICIC XAXA
Poetic Form Quatrain  (89%)
Metre 011110 0101101 1011010 11110010 101101 10011110 1010101 101010 101101010 1101010 010101110 10110 110101 110110 101111101 1111 1101101 110110 1101001 11101010 11111 10110110 11011111 1111010 10101010 11010100 1100010 11010100 110111 10101010 1010001 11111110 111101 11101110 0011101 10111110
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,023
Words 193
Sentences 13
Stanzas 9
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 36
Letters per line (avg) 22
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 89
Words per stanza (avg) 21
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 03, 2023

59 sec read
96

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. more…

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