In Memory of Col. Charles Young
Along the shore the tall, thin grassThat fringes that dark river,While sinuously soft feet pass,Begins to bleed and quiver.
The great dark voice breaks with a sobAcross the womb of night;Above your grave the tom-toms throb,And the hills are weird with light.
The great dark heart is like a wellDrained bitter by the sky,And all the honeyed lies they tellCome there to thirst and die.
No lie is strong enough to killThe roots that work below;From your rich dust and slaughtered willA tree with tongues will grow.
Words in this poem
- womb n.
- The belly; the abdomen. [OE. wombe, wambe, AS. wamb, womb; akin to D. wam belly, OS. & OHG. wamba, G. wamme, wampe, Icel. vömb, Sw. v&mb, Dan. vom, Goth. wamba.]
- throb v. i.
- To beat, or pulsate, with more than usual force or rapidity; to beat in consequence of agitation; to palpitate; -- said of the heart, pulse, etc. [OE. ; of uncertain origin; cf. Russ. trepete a trembling, and E. trepidation.]
- honeyed a.
- Covered with honey.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
In Memory of Col. Charles Young 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, In Memory of Col. Charles Young, in Color (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70543, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/cullen-color/in-memory-of-col-charles-young.html, id L01479.
Form and metre
In Memory of Col. Charles Young is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.2 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 38% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in common measure.
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 grassA · riverB · passA · quiverB
- 2 ABAB sobA · nightB · throbA · lightB
- 3 ABAB wellA · skyB · tellA · dieB
- 4 ABAB killA · belowB · willA · growB
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Along the shore the tall, thin grass | 8 | ˘/······ |
| That fringes that dark river, | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| While sinuously soft feet pass, | 7 | ······· |
| Begins to bleed and quiver. | 7 | ˘/···/˘ |
| The great dark voice breaks with a sob | 8 | ········ |
| Across the womb of night; | 6 | ˘/···· |
| Above your grave the tom-toms throb, | 8 | ········ |
| And the hills are weird with light. | 7 | ······· |
| The great dark heart is like a well | 8 | ········ |
| Drained bitter by the sky, | 7 | ·˘/˘··· |
| And all the honeyed lies they tell | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Come there to thirst and die. | 6 | ······ |
| No lie is strong enough to kill | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| The roots that work below; | 6 | ······ |
| From your rich dust and slaughtered will | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| A tree with tongues will grow. | 6 | ······ |
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.