The Bather
I saw him go down to the water to bathe;He stood naked upon the bank.
His breast was like a white cloud in the heaven,that catches the sun;It swelled with the sharp joy of the air.
His legs rose with the spring and curve of young birches;The hollow of his back caught the blue shadows:
With his head thrown up to the lips of the wind;And the curls of his forehead astir with the wind.
I would that I were a man, they are so beautiful;Their bodies are like the bows of the Indians;They have the spring and the grace of bows of hickory.
I know that women are beautiful, and that I am beautiful;But the beauty of a man is so lithe and alive and triumphant,Swift as the night of a swallow and sure as thepounce of the eagle.
Words in this poem
- astir adv.
- Stirring; in a state of activity or motion; out of bed. [Pref. a- + stir.]
- lithe v. i.
- To listen or listen to; to hearken to. P. Plowman. [Icel Listen.]
- pounce n.
- A fine powder, as of sandarac, or cuttlefish bone, -- formerly used to prevent ink from spreading on manuscript. [F. ponce pumice, pounce, fr. L. pumex, -icis, pumice. See Pumice.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Bather 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, The Bather, in More Songs from Vagabondia (1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18007, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/carman-vagabondia/the-bather.html, id L24707.
Form and metre
The Bather is 16 lines in 6 stanzas. The metre is dactylic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 71%).
See other poems in dactylic 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.
- 2 AA- heavenA · sunA · air
- 3 AA birchesA · shadowsA
- 4 AA windA · windA
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 dactylic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I saw him go down to the water to bathe; | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| He stood naked upon the bank. | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| His breast was like a white cloud in the heaven, | 10 | ·········/ |
| that catches the sun; | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| It swelled with the sharp joy of the air. | 9 | ········· |
| His legs rose with the spring and curve of young birches; | 12 | ··········/˘ |
| The hollow of his back caught the blue shadows: | 11 | ·/˘······/· |
| With his head thrown up to the lips of the wind; | 11 | ··········· |
| And the curls of his forehead astir with the wind. | 12 | ·····/˘˘/··· |
| I would that I were a man, they are so beautiful; | 12 | ··········/˘ |
| Their bodies are like the bows of the Indians; | 11 | ·/˘······/˘ |
| They have the spring and the grace of bows of hickory. | 12 | ··········/˘ |
| I know that women are beautiful, and that I am beautiful; | 14 | ···/˘·/˘····/˘ |
| But the beauty of a man is so lithe and alive and triumphant, | 17 | ··/˘·······˘/·˘/˘ |
| Swift as the night of a swallow and sure as the | 12 | ······/˘···· |
| pounce of the eagle. | 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.