Smoke-Rings
Most venerable and learned sir,Tall and true Philosopher,These rings of smoke you blow all dayWith such deep thought, what sense have they?
Small friend, with prayer and meditationI make an image of Creation.And if your mind is working nimbleStraightway you'll recognize a symbolOf the endless and eternal ringOf God, who girdles everything--God, who in His own form and planMoulds the fugitive life of man.These vaporous toys you watch me make,That shoot ahead, pause, turn and break--Some glide far out like sailing ships,Some weak ones fail me at my lips.He who ringed His awe in smoke,When He led forth His captive folk,In like manner, East, West, North, and South,Blows us ring-wise from His mouth.
Words in this poem
- straightway adv.
- Immediately; without loss of time; without delay.
- ahead adv.
- In or to the front; in advance; onward. [Pref. a- + head.]
- folk n.
- In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Smoke-Rings 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, Smoke-Rings, in Fairies and Fusiliers (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10122, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/graves-fairies/smoke-rings.html, id L02442.
Form and metre
Smoke-Rings is 20 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.2 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 30% 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 --AA sir · philosopher · dayA · theyA
- 2 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHH meditationA · creationA · nimbleB · symbolB · ringC · everythingC · planD · manD · makeE · breakE · shipsF · lipsF · smokeG · folkG · southH · mouthH
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Most venerable and learned sir, | 8 | ·/˘˘˘··· |
| Tall and true Philosopher, | 7 | ···˘/˘˘ |
| These rings of smoke you blow all day | 8 | ········ |
| With such deep thought, what sense have they? | 8 | ········ |
| Small friend, with prayer and meditation | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| I make an image of Creation. | 9 | ···/˘·˘/˘ |
| And if your mind is working nimble | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| Straightway you'll recognize a symbol | 9 | /˘·/˘··/˘ |
| Of the endless and eternal ring | 9 | ··/˘·˘/˘· |
| Of God, who girdles everything-- | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| God, who in His own form and plan | 8 | ········ |
| Moulds the fugitive life of man. | 8 | ··/˘˘··· |
| These vaporous toys you watch me make, | 9 | ·/˘˘····· |
| That shoot ahead, pause, turn and break-- | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Some glide far out like sailing ships, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Some weak ones fail me at my lips. | 8 | ········ |
| He who ringed His awe in smoke, | 8 | ···˘···· |
| When He led forth His captive folk, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| In like manner, East, West, North, and South, | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| Blows us ring-wise from His mouth. | 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.