I Wonder What It Feels Like to Be Drowned?
Look at my knees,That island rising from the steamy seas!The candles a tall lightship; my two handsAre boats and barges anchored to the sands,With mighty cliffs all round;They're full of wine and riches from far lands....I wonder what it feels like to be drowned?
I can make caves,By lifting up the island and huge wavesAnd storms, and then with head and ears well underBlow bubbles with a monstrous roar like thunder,A bull-of-Bashan sound.The seas run high and the boats split asunder....I wonder what it feels like to be drowned?
The thin soap slipsAnd slithers like a shark under the ships.My toes are on the soap-dish--that's the effectOf my huge storms; an iron steamer's wrecked.The soap slides round and round;He's biting the old sailors, I expect....I wonder what it feels like to be drowned?
Words in this poem
- steamy a.
- Consisting of, or resembling, steam; full of steam; vaporous; misty.
- anchored a.
- Held by an anchor; at anchor; held safely; as, an anchored bark; also, shaped like an anchor; forked; as, an anchored tongue.
- expect v. t.
- To wait for; to await. [L. expectatum, to look out for, await, expect; ex + out spectare to look at. See Spectacle.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
I Wonder What It Feels Like to Be Drowned? is in the public domain. This text is taken from Fairies and Fusiliers, Project Gutenberg ebook #10122; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Robert Graves, I Wonder What It Feels Like to Be Drowned?, in Fairies and Fusiliers (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10122, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/graves-fairies/i-wonder-what-it-feels-like-to-be-drowned.html, id L02433.
Form and metre
I Wonder What It Feels Like to Be Drowned? is 21 lines in 3 stanzas of 7 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABBCBC. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.7 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 24% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 AABBCBC kneesA · seasA · handsB · sandsB · roundC · landsB · drownedC
- 2 AABBCBC cavesA · wavesA · underB · thunderB · soundC · asunderB · drownedC
- 3 AABBCBC slipsA · shipsA · effectB · wreckedB · roundC · expectB · drownedC
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Look at my knees, | 4 | ···· |
| That island rising from the steamy seas! | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| The candles a tall lightship; my two hands | 10 | ·/˘··/···· |
| Are boats and barges anchored to the sands, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| With mighty cliffs all round; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| They're full of wine and riches from far lands.... | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| I wonder what it feels like to be drowned? | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| I can make caves, | 4 | ···· |
| By lifting up the island and huge waves | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| And storms, and then with head and ears well under | 11 | ··········· |
| Blow bubbles with a monstrous roar like thunder, | 11 | ·/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| A bull-of-Bashan sound. | 6 | ······ |
| The seas run high and the boats split asunder.... | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| I wonder what it feels like to be drowned? | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| The thin soap slips | 4 | ···· |
| And slithers like a shark under the ships. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| My toes are on the soap-dish--that's the effect | 11 | ·········˘/ |
| Of my huge storms; an iron steamer's wrecked. | 9 | ·····//˘· |
| The soap slides round and round; | 6 | ······ |
| He's biting the old sailors, I expect.... | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| I wonder what it feels like to be drowned? | 10 | ·/˘······· |
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.