A Song
Upon a time I had a Heart,And it was bright and gay;And I gave it to a Lady fairTo have and keep alway.
She soothed it and she smoothed itAnd she stabbed it till it bled;She brightened it and lightened itAnd she weighed it down with lead.
She flattered it and battered itAnd she filled it full of gall;Yet had I Twenty Hundred Hearts,Still should she have them all.
About this text
A Song is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Bashful Earthquake, & Other Fables and Verses, Project Gutenberg ebook #56765; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Oliver Herford, A Song, in The Bashful Earthquake, and Other Fables and Verses (1898), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56765, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/herford-bashful-earthquake/a-song.html, id L22128.
Form and metre
A Song is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
See other poems in common measure.
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 ABAB itA · bledB · itA · leadB
- 3 -A-A it · gallA · hearts · allA
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Upon a time I had a Heart, | 8 | ········ |
| And it was bright and gay; | 6 | ······ |
| And I gave it to a Lady fair | 9 | ······/˘· |
| To have and keep alway. | 6 | ····/˘ |
| She soothed it and she smoothed it | 7 | ······· |
| And she stabbed it till it bled; | 7 | ······· |
| She brightened it and lightened it | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And she weighed it down with lead. | 7 | ······· |
| She flattered it and battered it | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And she filled it full of gall; | 7 | ······· |
| Yet had I Twenty Hundred Hearts, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Still should she have them all. | 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.