Comparison
The sky of brightest gray seems darkTo one whose sky was ever white.To one who never knew a spark,Thro' all his life, of love or light,The grayest cloud seems over-bright.
The robin sounds a beggar's noteWhere one the nightingale has heard,But he for whom no silver throatIts liquid music ever stirred,Deems robin still the sweetest bird.
About this text
Comparison 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, Comparison, in The Complete Poems (1893–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18338, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dunbar-poems/comparison.html, id L00548.
Form and metre
Comparison is 10 lines in 2 stanzas of 5 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABABB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, 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 8.0 syllables. 30% 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 ABABB darkA · whiteB · sparkA · lightB · brightB
- 2 ABABB noteA · heardB · throatA · stirredB · birdB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The sky of brightest gray seems dark | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| To one whose sky was ever white. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| To one who never knew a spark, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Thro' all his life, of love or light, | 8 | ········ |
| The grayest cloud seems over-bright. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The robin sounds a beggar's note | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Where one the nightingale has heard, | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| But he for whom no silver throat | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Its liquid music ever stirred, | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| Deems robin still the sweetest bird. | 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.