A Roadway
Let those who will stride on their barren roadsAnd prick themselves to haste with self-made goads,Unheeding, as they struggle day by day,If flowers be sweet or skies be blue or gray:For me, the lone, cool way by purling brooks,The solemn quiet of the woodland nooks,A song-bird somewhere trilling sadly gay,A pause to pick a flower beside the way.
Words in this poem
- stride v. t.
- To walk with long steps, especially in a measured or pompous manner. [AS. stridan to stride, to strive; akin to LG. striden, OFries. strida to strive, D. strijden to strive, to contend, G. streiten, OHG. stritan; of uncertain orig]
- lone n.
- A lane. See Loanin.
- purling n.
- The motion of a small stream running among obstructions; also, the murmur it makes in so doing. [See 3d Purl.]
- somewhere adv.
- In some place unknown or not specified; in one place or another.
- trilling n.
- One of tree children born at the same birth. Wright. [Cf. G. drilling.]
- sadly adv.
- Wearily; heavily; firmly.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Roadway is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar, Project Gutenberg ebook #18338; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Paul Laurence Dunbar, A Roadway, in The Complete Poems (1893–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18338, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dunbar-poems/a-roadway.html, id L00782.
Form and metre
A Roadway is 8 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in heroic couplets, 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 AABBCCBB roadsA · goadsA · dayB · grayB · brooksC · nooksC · gayB · wayB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Let those who will stride on their barren roads | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And prick themselves to haste with self-made goads, | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| Unheeding, as they struggle day by day, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| If flowers be sweet or skies be blue or gray: | 10 | ·/········ |
| For me, the lone, cool way by purling brooks, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The solemn quiet of the woodland nooks, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/·· |
| A song-bird somewhere trilling sadly gay, | 10 | ···/·/˘/˘· |
| A pause to pick a flower beside the way. | 10 | ·····/˘/·· |
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.