Preparation
The little bird sits in the nest and singsA shy, soft song to the morning light;And it flutters a little and prunes its wings.The song is halting and poor and brief,And the fluttering wings scarce stir a leaf;But the note is a prelude to sweeter things,And the busy bill and the flutter slightAre proving the wings for a bolder flight!
Words in this poem
- scarce a.
- Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Preparation 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, Preparation, in The Complete Poems (1893–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18338, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dunbar-poems/preparation.html, id L00565.
Form and metre
Preparation is 8 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABACCABB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 73%). 83% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See 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 ABACCABB singsA · lightB · wingsA · briefC · leafC · thingsA · slightB · flightB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The little bird sits in the nest and sings | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| A shy, soft song to the morning light; | 9 | ······/˘· |
| And it flutters a little and prunes its wings. | 11 | ··/˘·/˘···· |
| The song is halting and poor and brief, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| And the fluttering wings scarce stir a leaf; | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| But the note is a prelude to sweeter things, | 11 | ·····/··/˘· |
| And the busy bill and the flutter slight | 10 | ··/˘···/˘· |
| Are proving the wings for a bolder flight! | 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.