A Sailor's Song
Oh for the breath of the briny deep,And the tug of the bellying sail,With the sea-gull's cry across the skyAnd a passing boatman's hail.For, be she fierce or be she gay,The sea is a famous friend alway.
Ho! for the plains where the dolphins play,And the bend of the mast and spars,And a fight at night with the wild sea-spriteWhen the foam has drowned the stars.And, pray, what joy can the landsman feelLike the rise and fall of a sliding keel?
Fair is the mead; the lawn is fairAnd the birds sing sweet on the lea;But the echo soft of a song aloftIs the strain that pleases me;And swish of rope and ring of chainAre music to men who sail the main.
Then, if you love me, let me sailWhile a vessel dares the deep;For the ship 's my wife, and the breath of lifeAre the raging gales that sweep;And when I 'm done with calm and blast,A slide o'er the side, and rest at last.
Words in this poem
- briny a.
- Of or pertaining to brine, or to the sea; partaking of the nature of brine; salt; as, a briny taste; the briny flood. [From Brine.]
- sprite n.
- A spirit; a soul; a shade; also, an apparition. See Spright. [OE. sprit, F. esprit, fr. L. spiritus. See Spirit, and cf. Sprightly.]
- landsman n.
- One who lives on the land; -- opposed to seaman.
- swish v. t.
- To flourish, so as to make the sound swish. Coleridge. [From the sound. Cf. Swash.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Sailor's Song 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 Sailor's Song, in The Complete Poems (1893–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18338, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dunbar-poems/a-sailor-s-song.html, id L00594.
Form and metre
A Sailor's Song is 24 lines in 4 stanzas of 6 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 79%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.5 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 33% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 -A-A-- deep · sailA · sky · hailA · gay · alway
- 2 -A-ABB play · sparsA · sprite · starsA · feelB · keelB
- 3 -A-ABB fair · leaA · aloft · meA · chainB · mainB
- 4 -A-ABB sail · deepA · life · sweepA · blastB · lastB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Oh for the breath of the briny deep, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| And the tug of the bellying sail, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| With the sea-gull's cry across the sky | 9 | ·····˘/·· |
| And a passing boatman's hail. | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| For, be she fierce or be she gay, | 8 | ········ |
| The sea is a famous friend alway. | 9 | ····/˘·/˘ |
| Ho! for the plains where the dolphins play, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| And the bend of the mast and spars, | 8 | ········ |
| And a fight at night with the wild sea-sprite | 10 | ·········· |
| When the foam has drowned the stars. | 8 | ·····˘·· |
| And, pray, what joy can the landsman feel | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Like the rise and fall of a sliding keel? | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Fair is the mead; the lawn is fair | 8 | ········ |
| And the birds sing sweet on the lea; | 8 | ········ |
| But the echo soft of a song aloft | 10 | ··/˘····˘/ |
| Is the strain that pleases me; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| And swish of rope and ring of chain | 8 | ········ |
| Are music to men who sail the main. | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| Then, if you love me, let me sail | 8 | ········ |
| While a vessel dares the deep; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| For the ship 's my wife, and the breath of life | 11 | ··········· |
| Are the raging gales that sweep; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| And when I 'm done with calm and blast, | 9 | ········· |
| A slide o'er the side, and rest at last. | 9 | ········· |
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.