The Discovery
These are the days of elfs and fays:Who says that with the dreams of myth,These imps and elves disport themselves?Ah no, along the paths of songDo all the tiny folk belong.
Round all our homes,Kobolds and gnomes do daily cling,Then nightly fling their lanterns out.And shout on shout, they join the rout,And sing, and sing, within the sweet enchanted ring.
Where gleamed the guile of moonlight's smile,Once paused I, listening for a while,And heard the lay, unknown by day,--The fairies' dancing roundelay.
Queen Mab was there, her shimmering hairEach fairy prince's heart's despair.She smiled to see their sparkling glee,And once I ween, she smiled at me.
Since when, you may by night or day,Dispute the sway of elf-folk gay;But, hear me, stay!I've learned the way to find QueenMab and elf and fay.
Where e'er by streams, the moonlight gleams,Or on a meadow softly beams,There, footing round on dew-lit ground,The fairy folk may all be found.
Words in this poem
- disport n.
- Play; sport; pastime; diversion; playfulness. [OF. desport, deport. See Disport, v. i., and cf. Sport.]
- folk n.
- In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
- nightly a.
- Of or pertaining to the night, or to every night; happening or done by night, or every night; as, nightly shades; he kept nightly vigils.
- enchanted a.
- Under the power of enchantment; possessed or exercised by enchanters; as, an enchanted castle.
- shimmering n.
- A gleam or glimmering.
- glee n.
- Music; minstrelsy; entertainment.
- ween v. i.
- To think; to imagine; to fancy. [OE. wenen, AS. w, fr. w hope, expectation, opinion; akin to D. waan, OFries. w, OS. & OHG. wan, G. wahn delusion, Icel. van hope, expectation, Goth. w, and D. w]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Discovery 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, The Discovery, in The Complete Poems (1893–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18338, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dunbar-poems/the-discovery.html, id L00837.
Form and metre
The Discovery is 27 lines in 6 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 3 of its 6 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.8 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 11% 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 ---AA fays · myth · themselves · songA · belongA
- 2 -ABBA homes · clingA · outB · routB · ringA
- 3 AABB smileA · whileA · dayB · roundelayB
- 4 AABB hairA · despairA · gleeB · meB
- 5 AAA-A dayA · gayA · stayA · queen · fayA
- 6 AABB gleamsA · beamsA · groundB · foundB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| These are the days of elfs and fays: | 8 | ········ |
| Who says that with the dreams of myth, | 8 | ········ |
| These imps and elves disport themselves? | 8 | ····˘/˘/ |
| Ah no, along the paths of song | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Do all the tiny folk belong. | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Round all our homes, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Kobolds and gnomes do daily cling, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Then nightly fling their lanterns out. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And shout on shout, they join the rout, | 8 | ········ |
| And sing, and sing, within the sweet enchanted ring. | 12 | ········˘/˘· |
| Where gleamed the guile of moonlight's smile, | 8 | ·····/·· |
| Once paused I, listening for a while, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And heard the lay, unknown by day,-- | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| The fairies' dancing roundelay. | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘˘ |
| Queen Mab was there, her shimmering hair | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Each fairy prince's heart's despair. | 8 | ·/˘/˘·˘/ |
| She smiled to see their sparkling glee, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And once I ween, she smiled at me. | 8 | ········ |
| Since when, you may by night or day, | 8 | ········ |
| Dispute the sway of elf-folk gay; | 8 | ˘/······ |
| But, hear me, stay! | 4 | ···· |
| I've learned the way to find Queen | 8 | ··˘····· |
| Mab and elf and fay. | 5 | ····· |
| Where e'er by streams, the moonlight gleams, | 8 | ·····/·· |
| Or on a meadow softly beams, | 8 | ···/·/˘· |
| There, footing round on dew-lit ground, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The fairy folk may all be found. | 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.