Repose of Rivers
The willows carried a slow sound,A sarabande the wind mowed on the mead.I could never rememberThat seething, steady leveling of the marshesTill age had brought me to the sea.
Flags, weeds. And remembrance of steep alcovesWhere cypresses shared the noon’sTyranny; they drew me into hades almost.And mammoth turtles climbing sulphur dreamsYielded, while sun-silt rippled themAsunder....
How much I would have bartered! the black gorgeAnd all the singular nestings in the hillsWhere beavers learn stitch and tooth.The pond I entered once and quickly fled--I remember now its singing willow rim.
And finally, in that memory all things nurse;After the city that I finally passedWith scalding unguents spread and smoking dartsThe monsoon cut across the deltaAt gulf gates.... There, beyond the dykes
I heard wind flaking sapphire, like this summer,And willows could not hold more steady sound.
Words in this poem
- singular a.
- Separate or apart from others; single; distinct. [OE. singuler, F. singulier, fr. L. singularius, singularis, fr. singulus single. See Single, a.]
- delta n.
- A tract of land shaped like the letter delta (as, the delta of the Ganges, of the Nile, or of the Mississippi. [Gr. Delta of the Nile.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Repose of Rivers is in the public domain. This text is taken from White buildings, Project Gutenberg ebook #77837; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Hart Crane, Repose of Rivers, in White Buildings (1926), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #77837, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/crane-hart-white-buildings/repose-of-rivers.html, id L02603.
Form and metre
Repose of Rivers is 23 lines in 5 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter. 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.1 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 52% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter, other poems in blank verse.
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.
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The willows carried a slow sound, | 8 | ·/·/˘··· |
| A sarabande the wind mowed on the mead. | 10 | ·········· |
| I could never remember | 7 | ··/˘˘/˘ |
| That seething, steady leveling of the marshes | 11 | ·/˘/˘/˘··/˘ |
| Till age had brought me to the sea. | 8 | ········ |
| Flags, weeds. And remembrance of steep alcoves | 10 | ···˘/˘··/· |
| Where cypresses shared the noon’s | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| Tyranny; they drew me into hades almost. | 11 | /˘·····/˘/· |
| And mammoth turtles climbing sulphur dreams | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘/˘· |
| Yielded, while sun-silt rippled them | 9 | /˘···/˘˘· |
| Asunder.... | 3 | ˘/˘ |
| How much I would have bartered! the black gorge | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And all the singular nestings in the hills | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Where beavers learn stitch and tooth. | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| The pond I entered once and quickly fled-- | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| I remember now its singing willow rim. | 11 | ·˘/˘··/˘/·· |
| And finally, in that memory all things nurse; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| After the city that I finally passed | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| With scalding unguents spread and smoking darts | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| The monsoon cut across the delta | 9 | ·˘/·˘/·/˘ |
| At gulf gates.... There, beyond the dykes | 8 | ········ |
| I heard wind flaking sapphire, like this summer, | 11 | ···/˘/˘··/˘ |
| And willows could not hold more steady sound. | 10 | ·/·····/˘· |
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.