A Song
All that a man may pray,Have I not prayed to thee?What were praise left to say,Has not been said by meO, ma mie?
Yet thine eyes and thine heart,Always were dumb to me:Only to be my part,Sorrow has come from thee,O, ma mie?
Where shall I seek and hideMy grief away with me?Lest my bitter tears should chide,Bring brief dismay to thee,O, ma mie?
More than a man may pray,Have I not prayed to thee?What were praise left to say,Has not been said by me,O, ma mie?
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Song is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems and Prose of Ernest Dowson, With a Memoir by Arthur Symons, Project Gutenberg ebook #8497; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Ernest Dowson, A Song, in The Poems of Ernest Dowson (1896–1899), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8497, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dowson-poems/a-song.html, id L01680.
Form and metre
A Song is 20 lines in 4 stanzas of 5 lines each. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.5 syllables. 10% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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- prayA · theeB · sayA · meB · mie
- 2 ABAB- heartA · meB · partA · theeB · mie
- 3 ABAB- hideA · meB · chideA · theeB · mie
- 4 ABAB- prayA · theeB · sayA · meB · mie
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| All that a man may pray, | 6 | ······ |
| Have I not prayed to thee? | 6 | ······ |
| What were praise left to say, | 6 | ······ |
| Has not been said by me | 6 | ······ |
| O, ma mie? | 3 | ··· |
| Yet thine eyes and thine heart, | 6 | ······ |
| Always were dumb to me: | 6 | /····· |
| Only to be my part, | 6 | /˘···· |
| Sorrow has come from thee, | 6 | /˘···· |
| O, ma mie? | 3 | ··· |
| Where shall I seek and hide | 6 | ······ |
| My grief away with me? | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| Lest my bitter tears should chide, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Bring brief dismay to thee, | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| O, ma mie? | 3 | ··· |
| More than a man may pray, | 6 | ······ |
| Have I not prayed to thee? | 6 | ······ |
| What were praise left to say, | 6 | ······ |
| Has not been said by me, | 6 | ······ |
| O, ma mie? | 3 | ··· |
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.