Fancy
Far in the Further East the skilful craftsmanFashioned this fancy for the West's delight.This rose and azure Dragon, crouching softlyUpon the satin skin, close-grained and white.
And you lay silent, while his slender needlesPricked the intricate pattern on your arm,Combining deftly Cruelty and Beauty,That subtle union, whose child is charm.
Charm irresistible: the lovely somethingWe follow in our dreams, but may not reach.The unattainable Divine Enchantment,Hinted in music, never heard in speech.
This from the blue design exhales towards me,As incense rises from the Homes of Prayer,While the unfettered eyes, allured and rested,Urge the forbidden lips to stoop and share;
Share in the sweetness of the rose and azureTraced in the Dragon's form upon the whiteCurve of the arm. Ah, curb thyself, my fancy,Where would'st thou drift in this enchanted flight?
Words in this poem
- craftsman n.
- One skilled in some trade or manual occupation; an artificer; a mechanic.
- deftly adv.
- Aptly; fitly; dexterously; neatly. [Cf. Defly.]
- enchanted a.
- Under the power of enchantment; possessed or exercised by enchanters; as, an enchanted castle.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Fancy is in the public domain. This text is taken from India's Love Lyrics, Project Gutenberg ebook #8197; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Laurence Hope, Fancy, in India's Love Lyrics (1901), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8197, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hope-india/fancy.html, id L22642.
Form and metre
Fancy is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
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.
- 1 -A-A craftsman · delightA · softly · whiteA
- 2 -A-A needles · armA · beauty · charmA
- 3 -A-A something · reachA · enchantment · speechA
- 4 -A-A me · prayerA · rested · shareA
- 5 -A-A azure · whiteA · fancy · flightA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Far in the Further East the skilful craftsman | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Fashioned this fancy for the West's delight. | 11 | /˘˘·/˘···˘/ |
| This rose and azure Dragon, crouching softly | 11 | ···/˘/˘/˘/˘ |
| Upon the satin skin, close-grained and white. | 11 | ···/˘···˘·· |
| And you lay silent, while his slender needles | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Pricked the intricate pattern on your arm, | 11 | ·˘·/˘˘/˘··· |
| Combining deftly Cruelty and Beauty, | 10 | ˘/˘/˘/˘·/˘ |
| That subtle union, whose child is charm. | 9 | ·/˘/˘···· |
| Charm irresistible: the lovely something | 11 | ··˘/˘˘·/˘/˘ |
| We follow in our dreams, but may not reach. | 11 | ·/˘·/˘····· |
| The unattainable Divine Enchantment, | 11 | ··˘/˘˘˘/˘/˘ |
| Hinted in music, never heard in speech. | 10 | /˘·/˘/˘··· |
| This from the blue design exhales towards me, | 11 | ····˘/˘/··· |
| As incense rises from the Homes of Prayer, | 10 | ·/·/˘····· |
| While the unfettered eyes, allured and rested, | 11 | ··˘/˘·˘/·/˘ |
| Urge the forbidden lips to stoop and share; | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Share in the sweetness of the rose and azure | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
| Traced in the Dragon's form upon the white | 11 | ·˘··/˘····· |
| Curve of the arm. Ah, curb thyself, my fancy, | 11 | ······˘/·/˘ |
| Where would'st thou drift in this enchanted flight? | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
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.