Song
Wintah, summah, snow er shine,Hit's all de same to me,Ef only I kin call you mine,An' keep you by my knee.
Ha'dship, frolic, grief er caih,Content by night an' day,Ef only I kin see you whaihYou wait beside de way.
Livin', dyin', smiles er teahs,My soul will still be free,Ef only thoo de comin' yeahsYou walk de worl' wid me.
Bird-song, breeze-wail, chune er moan,What puny t'ings dey 'll be,Ef w'en I 's seemin' all erlone,I knows yo' hea't 's wid me.
Words in this poem
- puny a.
- Imperfectly developed in size or vigor; small and feeble; inferior; petty. [F. puîté younger, later born, OF. puisné; puis afterwards (L. post; see Post-) + né born, L. natus. See Natal, and cf. Puisne.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
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, Song, in The Complete Poems (1893–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18338, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dunbar-poems/song-2.html, id L00723.
Form and metre
Song is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 2 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is short measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.9 syllables. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in short measure.
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 ABAB shineA · meB · mineA · kneeB
- 2 ABAB caihA · dayB · whaihA · wayB
- 3 -A-A teahs · freeA · yeahs · meA
- 4 -A-A moan · beA · erlone · meA
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 short measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Wintah, summah, snow er shine, | 7 | ······· |
| Hit's all de same to me, | 6 | ······ |
| Ef only I kin call you mine, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| An' keep you by my knee. | 6 | ······ |
| Ha'dship, frolic, grief er caih, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Content by night an' day, | 6 | /˘···· |
| Ef only I kin see you whaih | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| You wait beside de way. | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| Livin', dyin', smiles er teahs, | 6 | /˘···· |
| My soul will still be free, | 6 | ······ |
| Ef only thoo de comin' yeahs | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| You walk de worl' wid me. | 6 | ······ |
| Bird-song, breeze-wail, chune er moan, | 7 | ······· |
| What puny t'ings dey 'll be, | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Ef w'en I 's seemin' all erlone, | 9 | ········· |
| I knows yo' hea't 's wid me. | 7 | ······· |
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.