To Pfrimmer
Driftwood gathered here and thereAlong the beach of time;Now and then a chip of truth'Mid boards and boughs of rhyme;Driftwood gathered day by day,--The cypress and the oak,--Twigs that in some former timeFrom sturdy home trees broke.Did this wood come floating thickAll along down "Injin Crik?"Or did kind tides bring it theeFrom the past's receding seaDown the stream of memory?
Words in this poem
- driftwood n.
- Wood drifted or floated by water.
- broke v. i.
- To transact business for another. Brome. [See Broker, and cf. Brook.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Pfrimmer 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, To Pfrimmer, in The Complete Poems (1893–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18338, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dunbar-poems/to-pfrimmer.html, id L00883.
Form and metre
To Pfrimmer is 13 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.8 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 46% 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 -A-A-BAB--CC- there · timeA · truth · rhymeA · day · oakB · timeA · brokeB · thick · crik · theeC · seaC · memory
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Driftwood gathered here and there | 8 | /·/˘˘··· |
| Along the beach of time; | 6 | ˘/···· |
| Now and then a chip of truth | 7 | ······· |
| 'Mid boards and boughs of rhyme; | 6 | ······ |
| Driftwood gathered day by day,-- | 8 | /·/˘˘··· |
| The cypress and the oak,-- | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Twigs that in some former time | 7 | ····/˘· |
| From sturdy home trees broke. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Did this wood come floating thick | 7 | ····/˘· |
| All along down "Injin Crik?" | 7 | ·˘/···· |
| Or did kind tides bring it thee | 7 | ······· |
| From the past's receding sea | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| Down the stream of memory? | 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.