A Faun's Song
Cool! cool! cool!Cool and sweetThe feel of the moss at my feet!And sweet and coolThe touch of the wind, of the wind!
Cool wind out of the blue,At the touch of youA little wave crinkles and flowsAll over me down to my toes.
"Coo-loo! Coo-loo!"Hear the doves in the tree-tops croon."Coo-loo! Coo-loo!"Love comes soon.
"June! June!"The veery sings,Sings and sings,"June! June!"--A pretty tune!
Wind with your weight of perfume,Bring me the bluebells' bloom!
Words in this poem
- croon v. i.
- To make a continuous hollow moan, as cattle do when in pain.
- veery n.
- An American thrush (Turdus fuscescens) common in the Northern United States and Canada. It is light tawny brown above. The breast is pale buff, thickly spotted with brown. Called also Wilson's thrush.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Faun's Song is in the public domain. This text is taken from More Songs From Vagabondia, Project Gutenberg ebook #18007; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Bliss Carman, A Faun's Song, in More Songs from Vagabondia (1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18007, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/carman-vagabondia/a-faun-s-song.html, id L24688.
Form and metre
A Faun's Song is 20 lines in 5 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 60% of the lines. The metre is iambic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%).
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in iambic dimeter.
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 ABBA- coolA · sweetB · feetB · coolA · wind
- 2 AABB blueA · youA · flowsB · toesB
- 3 ABAB looA · croonB · looA · soonB
- 4 ABBAA juneA · singsB · singsB · juneA · tuneA
- 5 AA perfumeA · bloomA
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 dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Cool! cool! cool! | 3 | ··· |
| Cool and sweet | 3 | ··· |
| The feel of the moss at my feet! | 8 | ········ |
| And sweet and cool | 4 | ···· |
| The touch of the wind, of the wind! | 8 | ········ |
| Cool wind out of the blue, | 6 | ······ |
| At the touch of you | 5 | ····· |
| A little wave crinkles and flows | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| All over me down to my toes. | 8 | ········ |
| "Coo-loo! Coo-loo!" | 4 | ···· |
| Hear the doves in the tree-tops croon. | 8 | ········ |
| "Coo-loo! Coo-loo!" | 4 | ···· |
| Love comes soon. | 3 | ··· |
| "June! June!" | 2 | ·· |
| The veery sings, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Sings and sings, | 3 | ··· |
| "June! June!"-- | 2 | ·· |
| A pretty tune! | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Wind with your weight of perfume, | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Bring me the bluebells' bloom! | 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.