Preludes I
There is no rhyme that is half so sweetAs the song of the wind in the rippling wheat;There is no metre that's half so fineAs the lilt of the brook under rock and vine;And the loveliest lyric I ever heardWas the wildwood strain of a forest bird.--If the wind and the brook and the bird would teachMy heart their beautiful parts of speech,And the natural art that they say these with,My soul would sing of beauty and mythIn a rhyme and metre that none beforeHave sung in their love, or dreamed in their lore,And the world would be richer one poet the more.
Words in this poem
- lilt v. i.
- To do anything with animation and quickness, as to skip, fly, or hop. [Cf. Norw. lilla, lirla, to sing in a high tone.]
- wildwood n.
- A wild or unfrequented wood. Also used adjectively; as, wildwood flowers; wildwood echoes. Burns.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Preludes I is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #7796; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Madison Julius Cawein, Preludes I, in Poems (1911), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7796, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/cawein-poems/preludes-i.html, id L10857.
Form and metre
Preludes I is 13 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 92% of the lines. 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 46% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in rhyming couplets.
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 AABBCCDDEEFFF sweetA · wheatA · fineB · vineB · heardC · birdC · teachD · speechD · withE · mythE · beforeF · loreF · moreF
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| There is no rhyme that is half so sweet | 9 | ········· |
| As the song of the wind in the rippling wheat; | 11 | ········/˘· |
| There is no metre that's half so fine | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| As the lilt of the brook under rock and vine; | 11 | ··········· |
| And the loveliest lyric I ever heard | 10 | ·····/˘·/· |
| Was the wildwood strain of a forest bird.-- | 10 | ··/····/˘· |
| If the wind and the brook and the bird would teach | 11 | ··········· |
| My heart their beautiful parts of speech, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And the natural art that they say these with, | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| My soul would sing of beauty and myth | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| In a rhyme and metre that none before | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| Have sung in their love, or dreamed in their lore, | 10 | ·········· |
| And the world would be richer one poet the more. | 12 | ·····/˘·/˘·· |
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.