Taylor's Song
For joys the hours of earth bestowWith sorrow thou must pay.Though many follow close, yet know,They're loaned but for a day.With sighing in thy laughter's steadShall come a time of grief,The load of usury bow thy head,With loss of thy belief.Mary Anne, Mary Anne,Mary Anne, Mary Anne,Hadst thou not smiled upon me, thou,I were not weeping now.
May God help him who never canGive only half his soul;The time comes surely for that manTo take the sorrow whole.May God help him who was so glad,That he cannot forget,Help him who lost the all he had,But not his reason yet.Mary Anne, Mary Anne,Mary Anne, Mary Anne,The flowers that my life had grown,Died out when thou went gone.
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- usury n.
- A premium or increase paid, or stipulated to be paid, for a loan, as of money; interest. [OE. usurie, usure, F. usure, L. usura use, usury, interest, fr. uti, p. p. usus, to use. See Use, v. t.]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Taylor's Song is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems and Songs, Project Gutenberg ebook #6619, the Arthur Hubbell Palmer 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: Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Taylor's Song, in Poems and Songs (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bjornson-poems-and-songs/taylor-s-song.html, id L29283.
Form and metre
Taylor's Song is 24 lines in 2 stanzas of 12 lines each. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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 ABABCDCDEEFF bestowA · payB · knowA · dayB · steadC · griefD · headC · beliefD · anneE · anneE · thouF · nowF
- 2 ABABCDCDAA-- canA · soulB · manA · wholeB · gladC · forgetD · hadC · yetD · anneA · anneA · grown · gone
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| For joys the hours of earth bestow | 8 | ···/··˘/ |
| With sorrow thou must pay. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Though many follow close, yet know, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| They're loaned but for a day. | 6 | ······ |
| With sighing in thy laughter's stead | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Shall come a time of grief, | 6 | ······ |
| The load of usury bow thy head, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| With loss of thy belief. | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Mary Anne, Mary Anne, | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| Mary Anne, Mary Anne, | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| Hadst thou not smiled upon me, thou, | 8 | ········ |
| I were not weeping now. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| May God help him who never can | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Give only half his soul; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The time comes surely for that man | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| To take the sorrow whole. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| May God help him who was so glad, | 8 | ········ |
| That he cannot forget, | 6 | ··˘/˘/ |
| Help him who lost the all he had, | 8 | ········ |
| But not his reason yet. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Mary Anne, Mary Anne, | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| Mary Anne, Mary Anne, | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| The flowers that my life had grown, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Died out when thou went gone. | 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.