Exchanges
All that I had I brought,Little enough I know;A poor rhyme roughly wrought,A rose to match thy snow:All that I had I brought.
Little enough I sought:But a word compassionate,A passing glance, or thought,For me outside the gate:Little enough I sought.
Little enough I found:All that you had, perchance!With the dead leaves on the ground,I dance the devil's dance.All that you had I found.
About this text
Exchanges 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, Exchanges, in The Poems of Ernest Dowson (1896–1899), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8497, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dowson-poems/exchanges.html, id L01684.
Form and metre
Exchanges is 15 lines in 3 stanzas of 5 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABA, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 82% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.1 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
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 ABABA broughtA · knowB · wroughtA · snowB · broughtA
- 2 AAAAA soughtA · compassionateA · thoughtA · gateA · soughtA
- 3 ABABA foundA · perchanceB · groundA · danceB · foundA
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 I had I brought, | 6 | ······ |
| Little enough I know; | 6 | /˘˘/·· |
| A poor rhyme roughly wrought, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| A rose to match thy snow: | 6 | ······ |
| All that I had I brought. | 6 | ······ |
| Little enough I sought: | 6 | /˘˘/·· |
| But a word compassionate, | 7 | ···˘/˘˘ |
| A passing glance, or thought, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| For me outside the gate: | 6 | ··//·· |
| Little enough I sought. | 6 | /˘˘/·· |
| Little enough I found: | 6 | /˘˘/·· |
| All that you had, perchance! | 6 | ····˘/ |
| With the dead leaves on the ground, | 7 | ······· |
| I dance the devil's dance. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| All that you had I found. | 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.