The Sum
A little dreaming by the way,A little toiling day by day;A little pain, a little strife,A little joy,--and that is life.
A little short-lived summer's morn,When joy seems all so newly born,When one day's sky is blue above,And one bird sings,--and that is love.
A little sickening of the years,The tribute of a few hot tearsTwo folded hands, the failing breath,And peace at last,--and that is death.
Just dreaming, loving, dying so,The actors in the drama go--A flitting picture on a wall,Love, Death, the themes; but is that all?
Words in this poem
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
- sickening a.
- Causing sickness; specif., causing surfeit or disgust; nauseating.
- flitting n.
- A flying with lightness and celerity; a fluttering.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Sum 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 Sum, in The Complete Poems (1893–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18338, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dunbar-poems/the-sum.html, id L00641.
Form and metre
The Sum is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 6% 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 AABB wayA · dayA · strifeB · lifeB
- 2 AABB mornA · bornA · aboveB · loveB
- 3 AABB yearsA · tearsA · breathB · deathB
- 4 AABB soA · goA · wallB · allB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A little dreaming by the way, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| A little toiling day by day; | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| A little pain, a little strife, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| A little joy,--and that is life. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| A little short-lived summer's morn, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| When joy seems all so newly born, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| When one day's sky is blue above, | 8 | ········ |
| And one bird sings,--and that is love. | 8 | ········ |
| A little sickening of the years, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| The tribute of a few hot tears | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Two folded hands, the failing breath, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And peace at last,--and that is death. | 8 | ········ |
| Just dreaming, loving, dying so, | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| The actors in the drama go-- | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| A flitting picture on a wall, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Love, Death, the themes; but is that all? | 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.