Song for Lonely Roads
Now let us understand each other, love,Long time ago I crept off home,To my own gods I went.
The tale is old,It has been toldBy many men in many lands.The lands belong to those who tell.Now surely that is clear.
After the plow had westward swept,The gods bestowed the corn to stand.Long, long it stood,Strong, strong it grew,To make a forest for new song.
Deep in the corn the bargain hardYouth with the gods drove home.The gods remember,Youth forgets.Doubt not the soul of song that waits.
The singer dies,The singer lives,The gods wait in the corn,The soul of song is in the land.Lift up your lips to that.
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- drove n.
- A collection of cattle driven, or cattle collected for driving; a number of animals, as oxen, sheep, or swine, driven in a body. [AS. draf, fr. drifan to drive. See Drive.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Song for Lonely Roads is in the public domain. This text is taken from Mid-American Chants (New York: John Lane Company; London: John Lane, The Bodley Head, 1918), Internet Archive; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Sherwood Anderson, Song for Lonely Roads, in Mid-American Chants (1918), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/anderson-mid-american-chants/song-for-lonely-roads.html, id L29485.
Form and metre
Song for Lonely Roads is 23 lines in 5 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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.
- 2 AA--- oldA · toldA · lands · tell · clear
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Now let us understand each other, love, | 10 | ····˘/·/˘· |
| Long time ago I crept off home, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| To my own gods I went. | 6 | ······ |
| The tale is old, | 4 | ···· |
| It has been told | 4 | ···· |
| By many men in many lands. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The lands belong to those who tell. | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Now surely that is clear. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| After the plow had westward swept, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The gods bestowed the corn to stand. | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Long, long it stood, | 4 | ···· |
| Strong, strong it grew, | 4 | ···· |
| To make a forest for new song. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Deep in the corn the bargain hard | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Youth with the gods drove home. | 6 | ······ |
| The gods remember, | 5 | ··˘/˘ |
| Youth forgets. | 3 | ·˘/ |
| Doubt not the soul of song that waits. | 8 | ········ |
| The singer dies, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| The singer lives, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| The gods wait in the corn, | 6 | ······ |
| The soul of song is in the land. | 8 | ········ |
| Lift up your lips to that. | 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.