Symbols
I saw history in a poet’s song,In a river-reach and a gallows-hill,In a bridal bed, and a secret wrong,In a crown of thorns: in a daffodil.
I imagined measureless time in a day,And starry space in a waggon-road,And the treasure of all good harvests layIn the single seed that the sower sowed.
My garden-wind had driven and havened againAll ships that ever had gone to sea,And I saw the glory of all dead menIn the shadow that went by the side of me.
Words in this poem
- measureless a.
- Without measure; unlimited; immeasurable.
- starry a.
- Abounding with stars; adorned with stars.
- sower n.
- One who, or that which, sows.
- havened p. a.
- Sheltered in a haven.
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Symbols 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, Symbols, in Poems, 1908-1919 (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51575, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drinkwater-poems/symbols.html, id L23029.
Form and metre
Symbols is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 76%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 songA · hillB · wrongA · daffodilB
- 2 ABAB dayA · roadB · layA · sowedB
- 3 ABAB againA · seaB · menA · meB
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I saw history in a poet’s song, | 10 | ··/˘˘··/˘· |
| In a river-reach and a gallows-hill, | 10 | ··/˘···/˘· |
| In a bridal bed, and a secret wrong, | 10 | ··/˘···/˘· |
| In a crown of thorns: in a daffodil. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| I imagined measureless time in a day, | 11 | ·˘/˘/˘˘···· |
| And starry space in a waggon-road, | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| And the treasure of all good harvests lay | 10 | ··/˘···/˘· |
| In the single seed that the sower sowed. | 10 | ··/˘···/˘· |
| My garden-wind had driven and havened again | 11 | ·/˘··/·/˘˘/ |
| All ships that ever had gone to sea, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| And I saw the glory of all dead men | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| In the shadow that went by the side of me. | 11 | ··/········ |
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.