Song to the Laugh
All night we lay in the cold and the rain in the midst of the laughter,The laughter of weaklings,The laughter of women,The laughter of those who were strong.
At the end of the lane we lay, beyond the roar and the rattle.
Hark! In the silence the laughter!
Strong men creeping,Old men creeping,Old men and children, creeping and creeping—Far away in the darkness.
Edward, my son,Thomas, my man,Why do you creep all night in the darkness?Why do you creep and wait to strike at night in the darkness?
Nine! Ten! Twelve!Nine! Ten! Twelve!
Take the knife from the shield and strike in the darkness.Strike, man! Strike!
All night we lay in the cold and wet at the edge of the darkness.Trembling with fear we prepared to welcome the knife thrust.Then we kissed and our bodies caressed.We prepared, my beloved, to add our voices to those of the others.In the cold and wet we crept and laughed in the darkness.
About this text
Song to the Laugh 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 to the Laugh, in Mid-American Chants (1918), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/anderson-mid-american-chants/song-to-the-laugh.html, id L29489.
Form and metre
Song to the Laugh is 23 lines in 8 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.
- 4 AAA- creepingA · creepingA · creepingA · darkness
- 5 --AA son · man · darknessA · darknessA
- 6 AA twelveA · twelveA
- 8 A---A darknessA · thrust · caressed · others · darknessA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| All night we lay in the cold and the rain in the midst of the laughter, | 17 | ···············/˘ |
| The laughter of weaklings, | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| The laughter of women, | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| The laughter of those who were strong. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| At the end of the lane we lay, beyond the roar and the rattle. | 16 | ··············/˘ |
| Hark! In the silence the laughter! | 8 | ···/˘·/˘ |
| Strong men creeping, | 4 | ··/˘ |
| Old men creeping, | 4 | ··/˘ |
| Old men and children, creeping and creeping— | 10 | ···/˘/˘·/˘ |
| Far away in the darkness. | 7 | ·˘/··/˘ |
| Edward, my son, | 4 | /˘·· |
| Thomas, my man, | 4 | /˘·· |
| Why do you creep all night in the darkness? | 10 | ········/˘ |
| Why do you creep and wait to strike at night in the darkness? | 14 | ············/˘ |
| Nine! Ten! Twelve! | 3 | ··· |
| Nine! Ten! Twelve! | 3 | ··· |
| Take the knife from the shield and strike in the darkness. | 12 | ··········/˘ |
| Strike, man! Strike! | 3 | ··· |
| All night we lay in the cold and wet at the edge of the darkness. | 16 | ··············/˘ |
| Trembling with fear we prepared to welcome the knife thrust. | 14 | /˘˘···˘/·/˘··· |
| Then we kissed and our bodies caressed. | 10 | ····/˘/˘˘/ |
| We prepared, my beloved, to add our voices to those of the others. | 18 | ·˘/·˘/··/˘/˘····/˘ |
| In the cold and wet we crept and laughed in the darkness. | 13 | ···········/˘ |
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.