Ballad
I know my love is true,And oh the day is fair.The sky is clear and blue,The flowers are rich of hue,The air I breathe is rare,I have no grief or care;For my own love is true,And oh 'the day is fair.
My love is false I find,And oh the day is dark.Blows sadly down the wind,While sorrow holds my mind;I do not hear the lark,For quenched is life's dear spark,--My love is false I find,And oh the day is dark!
For love doth make the dayOr dark or doubly bright;Her beams along the wayDispel the gloom and gray.She lives and all is bright,She dies and life is night.For love doth make the day,Or dark or doubly bright.
Words in this poem
- sadly adv.
- Wearily; heavily; firmly.
- dispel v. t.
- To drive away by scattering, or so to cause to vanish; to clear away; to banish; to dissipate; as, to dispel a cloud, vapors, cares, doubts, illusions. [L. dispellere; dis- + pellere to push, drive. See Pulse a beating.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Ballad 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, Ballad, in The Complete Poems (1893–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18338, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dunbar-poems/ballad.html, id L00546.
Form and metre
Ballad is 24 lines in 3 stanzas of 8 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAABBAB. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 97%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.1 syllables. 8% 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 ABAABBAB trueA · fairB · blueA · hueA · rareB · careB · trueA · fairB
- 2 ABAABBAB findA · darkB · windA · mindA · larkB · sparkB · findA · darkB
- 3 ABAABBAB dayA · brightB · wayA · grayA · brightB · nightB · dayA · brightB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I know my love is true, | 6 | ······ |
| And oh the day is fair. | 6 | ······ |
| The sky is clear and blue, | 6 | ······ |
| The flowers are rich of hue, | 6 | ·/···· |
| The air I breathe is rare, | 6 | ······ |
| I have no grief or care; | 6 | ······ |
| For my own love is true, | 6 | ······ |
| And oh 'the day is fair. | 6 | ······ |
| My love is false I find, | 6 | ······ |
| And oh the day is dark. | 6 | ······ |
| Blows sadly down the wind, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| While sorrow holds my mind; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| I do not hear the lark, | 6 | ······ |
| For quenched is life's dear spark,-- | 6 | ······ |
| My love is false I find, | 6 | ······ |
| And oh the day is dark! | 6 | ······ |
| For love doth make the day | 6 | ······ |
| Or dark or doubly bright; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Her beams along the way | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| Dispel the gloom and gray. | 6 | ˘/···· |
| She lives and all is bright, | 6 | ······ |
| She dies and life is night. | 6 | ······ |
| For love doth make the day, | 6 | ······ |
| Or dark or doubly bright. | 6 | ···/˘· |
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.