A Song
Thou art the soul of a summer's day,Thou art the breath of the rose.But the summer is fledAnd the rose is deadWhere are they gone, who knows, who knows?
Thou art the blood of my heart o' hearts,Thou art my soul's repose,But my heart grows numbAnd my soul is dumbWhere art thou, love, who knows, who knows?
Thou art the hope of my after years--Sun for my winter snowsBut the years go by'Neath a clouded sky.Where shall we meet, who knows, Who knows?
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A 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 Song, in The Complete Poems (1893–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18338, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dunbar-poems/a-song-2.html, id L00877.
Form and metre
A Song is 15 lines in 3 stanzas of 5 lines each. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.7 syllables. 40% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 -ABBA day · roseA · fledB · deadB · knowsA
- 2 -ABBA hearts · reposeA · numbB · dumbB · knowsA
- 3 -ABBA years · snowsA · byB · skyB · knowsA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Thou art the soul of a summer's day, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Thou art the breath of the rose. | 7 | ······· |
| But the summer is fled | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| And the rose is dead | 5 | ····· |
| Where are they gone, who knows, who knows? | 8 | ········ |
| Thou art the blood of my heart o' hearts, | 9 | ········· |
| Thou art my soul's repose, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| But my heart grows numb | 5 | ····· |
| And my soul is dumb | 5 | ····· |
| Where art thou, love, who knows, who knows? | 8 | ········ |
| Thou art the hope of my after years-- | 9 | ········· |
| Sun for my winter snows | 6 | ···/˘· |
| But the years go by | 5 | ····· |
| 'Neath a clouded sky. | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Where shall we meet, who knows, Who knows? | 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.