Song
Soon as the glazed and gleaming snowReflects the day-dawn cold and clear,The hunter of the west must goIn depth of woods to seek the deer.
His rifle on his shoulder placed,His stores of death arranged with skill,His moccasins and snow-shoes laced,--Why lingers he beside the hill?
Far, in the dim and doubtful light,Where woody slopes a valley leave,He sees what none but lover might,The dwelling of his Genevieve.
And oft he turns his truant eye,And pauses oft, and lingers near;But when he marks the reddening sky,He bounds away to hunt the deer.
Words in this poem
- laced a.
- Fastened with a lace or laces; decorated with narrow strips or braid. See Lace, v. t.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Song is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems by William Cullen Bryant, Project Gutenberg ebook #16341; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Cullen Bryant, Song, in Poems (1821–1876), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16341, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bryant-poems/song.html, id L07251.
Form and metre
Song is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.3 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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.
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 ABAB snowA · clearB · goA · deerB
- 2 ABAB placedA · skillB · lacedA · hillB
- 3 ABAB lightA · leaveB · mightA · genevieveB
- 4 ABAB eyeA · nearB · skyA · deerB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Soon as the glazed and gleaming snow | 9 | ····˘·/˘· |
| Reflects the day-dawn cold and clear, | 8 | ˘/······ |
| The hunter of the west must go | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| In depth of woods to seek the deer. | 8 | ········ |
| His rifle on his shoulder placed, | 9 | ·/˘··/˘·˘ |
| His stores of death arranged with skill, | 9 | ····˘/˘·· |
| His moccasins and snow-shoes laced,-- | 9 | ·/˘˘····˘ |
| Why lingers he beside the hill? | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| Far, in the dim and doubtful light, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Where woody slopes a valley leave, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| He sees what none but lover might, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The dwelling of his Genevieve. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And oft he turns his truant eye, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And pauses oft, and lingers near; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| But when he marks the reddening sky, | 9 | ·····/˘˘· |
| He bounds away to hunt the deer. | 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.