Jonah
A purple whaleProudly sweeps his tailTowards Nineveh;Glassy greenSurges betweenA mile of roaring sea.
"O town of gold,Of splendour multifold,Lucre and lust,Leviathan's eyeCan surely spyThy doom of death and dust."
On curving sandsVengeful Jonah stands."Yet forty days,Then down, down,Tumbles the townIn flaming ruin ablaze."
With swift lamentThose Ninevites repent.They cry in tears,"Our hearts fail!The whale, the whale!Our sins prick us like spears."
Jonah is vexed;He cries, "What next? what next?"And shakes his fist."Stupid city,The shame, the pity,The glorious crash I've missed."
Away goes Jonah grumbling,Murmuring and mumbling;Off ploughs the purple whale,With disappointed tail.
Words in this poem
- splendour n.
- Great brightness; brilliant luster; brilliancy; as, the splendor ot the sun. B. Jonson. [L. fr. splendere to shine: cf. F. splendeur.]
- multifold a.
- Many times doubled; manifold; numerous. [Multi- + fold.]
- lucre n.
- Gain in money or goods; profit; riches; -- often in an ill sense. [F. lucre, L. lucrum.]
- lust v. i.
- To list; to like. [AS. lystan. See Lust, n., and cf. List to choose.]
- vengeful a.
- Vindictive; retributive; revengeful.
- ablaze adv.
- On fire; in a blaze, gleaming. Milman. [Pref. a- + blaze.]
- repent a.
- Prostrate and rooting; -- said of stems. Gray. [L. repens, -entis, creeping, p. pr. of repere to creep.]
- glorious a.
- Exhibiting attributes, qualities, or acts that are worthy of or receive glory; noble; praiseworthy; excellent; splendid; illustrious; inspiring admiration; as, glorious deeds. [OF. glorios, glorious, F. glorieux, fr. L. gloriosus. See Glory, n.]
- mumbling a.
- Low; indistinct; inarticulate.
- disappointed a.
- Defeated of expectation or hope; balked; as, a disappointed person or hope.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Jonah 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, Jonah, in Fairies and Fusiliers (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10122, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/graves-fairies/jonah.html, id L02431.
Form and metre
Jonah is 34 lines in 6 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is AABCCB, complete in 4 of its 6 stanzas. The metre is iambic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.0 syllables. 7 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 26% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic dimeter.
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-BB- whaleA · tailA · nineveh · greenB · betweenB · sea
- 2 AABCCB goldA · multifoldA · lustB · eyeC · spyC · dustB
- 3 AABCCB sandsA · standsA · daysB · downC · townC · ablazeB
- 4 AABCCB lamentA · repentA · tearsB · failC · whaleC · spearsB
- 5 AABCCB vexedA · nextA · fistB · cityC · pityC · missedB
- 6 AABB grumblingA · mumblingA · whaleB · tailB
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 dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| A purple whale | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Proudly sweeps his tail | 5 | /˘··· |
| Towards Nineveh; | 5 | ··/˘˘ |
| Glassy green | 3 | /˘· |
| Surges between | 4 | /˘·· |
| A mile of roaring sea. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| "O town of gold, | 4 | ···· |
| Of splendour multifold, | 6 | ·/˘/˘˘ |
| Lucre and lust, | 4 | /˘·· |
| Leviathan's eye | 5 | ˘/˘˘· |
| Can surely spy | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Thy doom of death and dust." | 6 | ······ |
| On curving sands | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Vengeful Jonah stands. | 5 | /˘/˘· |
| "Yet forty days, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Then down, down, | 3 | ··· |
| Tumbles the town | 4 | /˘·· |
| In flaming ruin ablaze." | 7 | ·/˘/˘˘/ |
| With swift lament | 4 | ··˘/ |
| Those Ninevites repent. | 6 | ····˘/ |
| They cry in tears, | 4 | ···· |
| "Our hearts fail! | 4 | /˘·· |
| The whale, the whale! | 4 | ···· |
| Our sins prick us like spears." | 7 | /˘····· |
| Jonah is vexed; | 4 | /˘·· |
| He cries, "What next? what next?" | 6 | ······ |
| And shakes his fist. | 4 | ···· |
| "Stupid city, | 4 | /˘/˘ |
| The shame, the pity, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| The glorious crash I've missed." | 8 | ·/˘˘···˘ |
| Away goes Jonah grumbling, | 8 | ˘/·/˘/˘˘ |
| Murmuring and mumbling; | 7 | /˘˘·/˘˘ |
| Off ploughs the purple whale, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| With disappointed tail. | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
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.