Roundels of the Year
I caught the changes of the yearIn soft and fragile nets of song,For you to whom my days belong.
For you to whom each day is dearOf all the high processional throng,I caught the changes of the yearIn soft and fragile nets of song.
And here some sound of beauty, hereSome note of ancient, ageless wrongReshaping as my lips were strong,I caught the changes of the yearIn soft and fragile nets of song,For you to whom my days belong.
Words in this poem
- processional a.
- Of or pertaining to a procession; consisting in a procession.
- ageless a.
- Without old age limits of duration; as, fountains of ageless youth.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Roundels of the Year is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, 1908-1919, Project Gutenberg ebook #51575; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Drinkwater, Roundels of the Year, in Poems, 1908-1919 (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51575, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drinkwater-poems/roundels-of-the-year.html, id L23058.
Form and metre
Roundels of the Year is 13 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 -AA year · songA · belongA
- 2 ABAB dearA · throngB · yearA · songB
- 3 ABBABB hereA · wrongB · strongB · yearA · songB · belongB
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I caught the changes of the year | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| In soft and fragile nets of song, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| For you to whom my days belong. | 8 | ······˘/ |
| For you to whom each day is dear | 8 | ········ |
| Of all the high processional throng, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| I caught the changes of the year | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| In soft and fragile nets of song. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And here some sound of beauty, here | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Some note of ancient, ageless wrong | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Reshaping as my lips were strong, | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
| I caught the changes of the year | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| In soft and fragile nets of song, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| For you to whom my days belong. | 8 | ······˘/ |
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.