Hokku 47
A stem of grass, whereon in vainA dragon-fly essayed to light!
Words in this poem
- whereon adv.
- On which; -- used relatively; as, the earth whereon we live.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Hokku 47 is in the public domain. This text is taken from Basho and the Japanese Poetical Epigram (Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, vol. XXX, part 2), Internet Archive, the Basil Hall Chamberlain translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Matsuo Bashō, Hokku 47, in Bashō's Hokku (1902), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/basho-hokku/47.html, id L28828.
Form and metre
Hokku 47 is 2 lines in a single stanza. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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.
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| A stem of grass, whereon in vain | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| A dragon-fly essayed to light! | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
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.