Across the Table. To A. L. L
Here's to you, Arthur! You and IHave seen a lot of stormy weather,Since first we clinked cups on the slyAt school together.
The winds of fate have had their willAnd blown our crafts so far apartWe hardly knew if either stillWere on the chart.
But now I know the love of manIs more than time or space or fate,And laugh to scorn the powers that ban,With you for mate.
It's good to have you sitting by,Old man, to prove the world no botch,To shame the devil with your eyeAnd pass the Scotch.
About this text
Across the Table. To A. L. L 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, Across the Table. To A. L. L, in More Songs from Vagabondia (1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18007, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/carman-vagabondia/across-the-table-to-a-l-l.html, id L24696.
Form and metre
Across the Table. To A. L. L 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 94%).
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 iA · weatherB · slyA · togetherB
- 2 ABAB willA · apartB · stillA · chartB
- 3 ABAB manA · fateB · banA · mateB
- 4 ABAB byA · botchB · eyeA · scotchB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Here's to you, Arthur! You and I | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Have seen a lot of stormy weather, | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| Since first we clinked cups on the sly | 8 | ········ |
| At school together. | 5 | ··˘/˘ |
| The winds of fate have had their will | 8 | ········ |
| And blown our crafts so far apart | 8 | ··/···˘/ |
| We hardly knew if either still | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Were on the chart. | 4 | ···· |
| But now I know the love of man | 8 | ········ |
| Is more than time or space or fate, | 8 | ········ |
| And laugh to scorn the powers that ban, | 8 | ·····/·· |
| With you for mate. | 4 | ···· |
| It's good to have you sitting by, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Old man, to prove the world no botch, | 8 | ········ |
| To shame the devil with your eye | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And pass the Scotch. | 4 | ···· |
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.