The Pool
By the pool that I see in my dreams, dear love,I have sat with you time and again;And listened beneath the dank leaves, dear love,To the sibilant sound of the rain.
And the pool, it is silvery bright, dear love,And as pure as the heart of a maid,As sparkling and dimpling, it darkles and shinesIn the depths of the heart of the glade.
But, oh, I 've a wish in my soul, dear love,(The wish of a dreamer, it seems,)That I might wash free of my sins, dear love,In the pool that I see in my dreams.
Words in this poem
- dank n.
- Moisture; humidity; water.
- glade n.
- An open passage through a wood; a grassy open or cleared space in a forest. [Prob. of Scand. origin, and akin to glad, a.; cf. also W. golead, goleuad, a lighting, illumination, fr. goleu light, clear, bright, goleu fwlch glade, lit., a ]
- dreamer n.
- One who dreams.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Pool 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 Pool, in The Complete Poems (1893–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18338, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dunbar-poems/the-pool.html, id L00753.
Form and metre
The Pool is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is anapaestic common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.6 syllables. 8% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in anapaestic common 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 loveA · againB · loveA · rainB
- 2 -A-A love · maidA · shines · gladeA
- 3 ABAB loveA · seemsB · loveA · dreamsB
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 anapaestic common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| By the pool that I see in my dreams, dear love, | 11 | ··········· |
| I have sat with you time and again; | 9 | ·······˘/ |
| And listened beneath the dank leaves, dear love, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| To the sibilant sound of the rain. | 9 | ··/˘˘···· |
| And the pool, it is silvery bright, dear love, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And as pure as the heart of a maid, | 9 | ········· |
| As sparkling and dimpling, it darkles and shines | 10 | ·/˘·/˘···· |
| In the depths of the heart of the glade. | 9 | ········· |
| But, oh, I 've a wish in my soul, dear love, | 11 | ··········· |
| (The wish of a dreamer, it seems,) | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| That I might wash free of my sins, dear love, | 10 | ·········· |
| In the pool that I see in my dreams. | 9 | ········· |
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.