For a Poet
I have wrapped my dreams in a silken cloth,And laid them away in a box of gold;Where long will cling the lips of the moth,I have wrapped my dreams in a silken cloth;I hide no hate; I am not even wrothWho found earth’s breath so keen and cold;I have wrapped my dreams in a silken cloth,And laid them away in a box of gold.
Words in this poem
- wroth a.
- Full of wrath; angry; incensed; much exasperated; wrathful. [OE. wroth, wrap, AS. wraedh wroth, crooked, bad; akin to wriedhan to writhe, and to OS. wreedhangry, D. wreed cruel, OHG. reid twisted, Icel. reiedhr angry, Dan]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
For a Poet is in the public domain. This text is taken from Color, Project Gutenberg ebook #70543; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Countee Cullen, For a Poet, in Color (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70543, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/cullen-color/for-a-poet.html, id L01436.
Form and metre
For a Poet is 8 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABAAABAB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 76%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.5 syllables. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ABAAABAB clothA · goldB · mothA · clothA · wrothA · coldB · clothA · goldB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I have wrapped my dreams in a silken cloth, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And laid them away in a box of gold; | 10 | ···˘/····· |
| Where long will cling the lips of the moth, | 9 | ········· |
| I have wrapped my dreams in a silken cloth; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| I hide no hate; I am not even wroth | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Who found earth’s breath so keen and cold; | 8 | ········ |
| I have wrapped my dreams in a silken cloth, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And laid them away in a box of gold. | 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.