King David
King David was a sorrowful man:No cause for his sorrow had he;And he called for the music of a hundred harps,To ease his melancholy.
They played till they all fell silent:Played-and play sweet did they;But the sorrow that haunted the heart of King DavidThey could not charm away.
He rose; and in his gardenWalked by the moon alone,A nightingale hidden in a cypress-treeJargoned on and on.
King David lifted his sad eyesInto the dark-boughed tree-''Tell me, thou little bird that singest,Who taught my grief to thee?'
But the bird in no wise heededAnd the king in the cool of the moonHearkened to the nightingale's sorrowfulness,Till all his own was gone.
Words in this poem
- haunted a.
- Inhabited by, or subject to the visits of, apparitions; frequented by a ghost.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
King David is in the public domain. This text is taken from Peacock Pie, a Book of Rhymes, Project Gutenberg ebook #3753; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Walter de la Mare, King David, in Peacock Pie (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3753, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/de-la-mare-peacock-pie/king-david.html, id L12602.
Form and metre
King David is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 30% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 -A-A silent · theyA · david · awayA
- 3 AA-A gardenA · aloneA · tree · onA
- 4 -A-A eyes · treeA · singest · theeA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| King David was a sorrowful man: | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| No cause for his sorrow had he; | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| And he called for the music of a hundred harps, | 12 | ·····/˘··/˘· |
| To ease his melancholy. | 7 | ···/˘·˘ |
| They played till they all fell silent: | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Played-and play sweet did they; | 6 | ······ |
| But the sorrow that haunted the heart of King David | 13 | ··/˘·/˘····/˘ |
| They could not charm away. | 6 | ····˘/ |
| He rose; and in his garden | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Walked by the moon alone, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| A nightingale hidden in a cypress-tree | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Jargoned on and on. | 6 | /˘˘··· |
| King David lifted his sad eyes | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Into the dark-boughed tree- | 6 | ······ |
| ''Tell me, thou little bird that singest, | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| Who taught my grief to thee?' | 6 | ······ |
| But the bird in no wise heeded | 8 | ······/˘ |
| And the king in the cool of the moon | 9 | ········· |
| Hearkened to the nightingale's sorrowfulness, | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| Till all his own was gone. | 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.