Song and Pain
OUT of my sorrow have I made these songs,Out of my sorrow;Though somewhat of the making’s eager painFrom Joy did borrow.
Some day, I trust, God’s purpose of Pain for meShall be complete,And then--to enter in the House of Joy....Prepare, my feet.
Words in this poem
- borrow v. t.
- To receive from another as a loan, with the implied or expressed intention of returning the identical article or its equivalent in kind; -- the opposite of lend. [OE. borwen, AS. borgian, fr. borg, borh, pledge; akin to D. borg, G. borg; prob. fr. root of AS. beorgan to protect. Borough.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Song and Pain is in the public domain. This text is taken from Severn & Somme, Project Gutenberg ebook #63895; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Ivor Gurney, Song and Pain, in Severn and Somme (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #63895, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/gurney-severn-somme/song-and-pain.html, id L02564.
Form and metre
Song and Pain is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.4 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% 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.
- 2 -A-A me · completeA · joy · feetA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| OUT of my sorrow have I made these songs, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Out of my sorrow; | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Though somewhat of the making’s eager pain | 10 | ·//··/˘/˘· |
| From Joy did borrow. | 5 | ···/· |
| Some day, I trust, God’s purpose of Pain for me | 11 | ·····/˘···· |
| Shall be complete, | 4 | ··˘/ |
| And then--to enter in the House of Joy.... | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Prepare, my feet. | 4 | ˘/·· |
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.