A Song for Marna
Dame of the night of hairLike blue smoke blown!World yet undreamed-of thereLurks to be known.
Dame of the dizzy eyes,Lure of dim quests!World of what midnights liesUnder thy breasts!
Dame of the quench of love,Give me to quaff!There's all the world's made ofUnder thy laugh.
Dame of the dare of gods,Let the sky lower!Time, give the world for odds,--I choose this hour.
Words in this poem
- dame n.
- A mistress of a family, who is a lady; a womam in authority; especially, a lady. [F. dame, LL. domna, fr. L. domina mistress, lady, fem. of dominus master, ruler, lord; akin to domare to tame, subdue. See Tame, and cf. Dam mother, Dan, Danger]
- quaff v. t.
- To drink with relish; to drink copiously of; to swallow in large draughts. [For quach, fr. Gael. & Ir. cuach a drinking cup; cf. L. caucus a drinking vessel. Cf. Quaigh.]
- odds n.
- Difference in favor of one and against another; excess of one of two things or numbers over the other; inequality; advantage; superiority; hence, excess of chances; probability. [See Odd, a.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Song for Marna 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 Song for Marna, in More Songs from Vagabondia (1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18007, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/carman-vagabondia/a-song-for-marna.html, id L24711.
Form and metre
A Song for Marna is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
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 ABAB hairA · blownB · thereA · knownB
- 2 ABAB eyesA · questsB · liesA · breastsB
- 3 ABAB loveA · quaffB · ofA · laughB
- 4 A-A- godsA · lower · oddsA · hour
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Dame of the night of hair | 6 | ······ |
| Like blue smoke blown! | 4 | ···· |
| World yet undreamed-of there | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| Lurks to be known. | 4 | ···· |
| Dame of the dizzy eyes, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Lure of dim quests! | 4 | ···· |
| World of what midnights lies | 6 | ···/·· |
| Under thy breasts! | 4 | ···· |
| Dame of the quench of love, | 6 | ······ |
| Give me to quaff! | 4 | ···· |
| There's all the world's made of | 6 | ······ |
| Under thy laugh. | 4 | ···· |
| Dame of the dare of gods, | 6 | ······ |
| Let the sky lower! | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Time, give the world for odds,-- | 6 | ······ |
| I choose this hour. | 5 | ···/˘ |
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.