Colors
The little man with the vague beard and guisePulled at the wicket. "Come inside!" he said,"I'll show you all we've got now -- it was sizeYou wanted? -- oh, dry colors! Well" -- he ledTo a dim alley lined with musty bins,And pulled one fiercely. Violent and boldA sudden tempest of mad, shrieking sinsScarlet screamed out above the battered goldOf tins and picture-frames. I held my breath.He tugged another hard -- and sapphire skiesSpread in vast quietude, serene as death,O'er waves like crackled turquoise -- and my eyesBurnt with the blinding brilliance of calm sea!"We're selling that lot there out cheap!" said he.
Words in this poem
- quietude n.
- Rest; repose; quiet; tranquillity. Shelley. [L. quietudo: cf. F. quiétude.]
- crackled a.
- Covered with minute cracks in the glaze; -- said of some kinds of porcelain and fine earthenware.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Colors is in the public domain. This text is taken from Young Adventure: A Book of Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #312; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Stephen Vincent Benét, Colors, in Young Adventure (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #312, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/benet-young-adventure/colors.html, id L13396.
Form and metre
Colors is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCDEAEAFF. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 57% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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.
- 1 ABABCDCDEAEAFF guiseA · saidB · sizeA · ledB · binsC · boldD · sinsC · goldD · breathE · skiesA · deathE · eyesA · seaF · heF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The little man with the vague beard and guise | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Pulled at the wicket. "Come inside!" he said, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| "I'll show you all we've got now -- it was size | 10 | ·········· |
| You wanted? -- oh, dry colors! Well" -- he led | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| To a dim alley lined with musty bins, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And pulled one fiercely. Violent and bold | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘·· |
| A sudden tempest of mad, shrieking sins | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Scarlet screamed out above the battered gold | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| Of tins and picture-frames. I held my breath. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| He tugged another hard -- and sapphire skies | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| Spread in vast quietude, serene as death, | 10 | ···/˘˘˘/·· |
| O'er waves like crackled turquoise -- and my eyes | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Burnt with the blinding brilliance of calm sea! | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| "We're selling that lot there out cheap!" said he. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
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.