Student-Song
When Youth's warm heart beats high, my friend,And Youth's blue sky is bright,And shines in Youth's clear eye, my friend,Love's early dawning light,Let the free soul spurn care's control,And while the glad days shine,We'll use their beams for Youth's gay dreamsOf Love and Song and Wine.
Let not the bigot's frown, my friend,O'ercast thy brow with gloom,For Autumn's sober brown, my friend,Shall follow Summer's bloom.Let smiles and sighs and loving eyesIn changeful beauty shine,And shed their beams on Youth's gay dreamsOf Love and Song and Wine.
For in the weary years, my friend,That stretched before us lie,There'll be enough of tears, my friend,To dim the brightest eye.So let them wait, and laugh at fate,While Youth's sweet moments shine,--Till memory gleams with golden dreamsOf Love and Song and Wine.
Words in this poem
- spurn v. t.
- To drive back or away, as with the foot; to kick. [OE. spurnen to kick against, to stumble over, AS. spurnan to kick, offend; akin to spura spur, OS. & OHG. spurnan to kick, Icel. spyrna, L. spernere to despise,]
- 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,]
- changeful a.
- Full of change; mutable; inconstant; fickle; uncertain.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Student-Song is in the public domain. This text is taken from Pike County Ballads and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #6062; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Hay, Student-Song, in Pike County Ballads and Other Poems (1871), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6062, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hay-pike-county/student-song.html, id L21626.
Form and metre
Student-Song is 24 lines in 3 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
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 ABAB-C-C friendA · brightB · friendA · lightB · control · shineC · dreams · wineC
- 2 ABAB-C-C friendA · gloomB · friendA · bloomB · eyes · shineC · dreams · wineC
- 3 ABAB-C-C friendA · lieB · friendA · eyeB · fate · shineC · dreams · wineC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| When Youth's warm heart beats high, my friend, | 8 | ········ |
| And Youth's blue sky is bright, | 6 | ······ |
| And shines in Youth's clear eye, my friend, | 8 | ········ |
| Love's early dawning light, | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Let the free soul spurn care's control, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| And while the glad days shine, | 6 | ······ |
| We'll use their beams for Youth's gay dreams | 8 | ········ |
| Of Love and Song and Wine. | 6 | ······ |
| Let not the bigot's frown, my friend, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| O'ercast thy brow with gloom, | 6 | ······ |
| For Autumn's sober brown, my friend, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Shall follow Summer's bloom. | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Let smiles and sighs and loving eyes | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| In changeful beauty shine, | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| And shed their beams on Youth's gay dreams | 8 | ········ |
| Of Love and Song and Wine. | 6 | ······ |
| For in the weary years, my friend, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| That stretched before us lie, | 6 | ······ |
| There'll be enough of tears, my friend, | 9 | /˘·˘/···· |
| To dim the brightest eye. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| So let them wait, and laugh at fate, | 8 | ········ |
| While Youth's sweet moments shine,-- | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Till memory gleams with golden dreams | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Of Love and Song and Wine. | 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.