Poem for a Decorative Panel
We should have a land of sun,Of gorgeous sun,And a land of fragrant waterWhere the twilightIs a soft bandanna handkerchiefOf rose and gold,And not this land where life is cold.
We should have a land of trees,Of tall thick treesBowed down with chattering parrotsBrilliant as the day,And not this land where birds are grey.
Ah, we should have a land of joy,Of love and joy and wine and song,And not this land where joy is wrong.
Oh, sweet, away!Ah, my beloved one, away!
Words in this poem
- gorgeous a.
- Imposing through splendid or various colors; showy; fine; magnificent. [OF. gorgias beautiful, glorious, vain, luxurious; cf. OF. gorgias ruff, neck handkerchief, and F. gorge throat, and se pengorger to assume airs. Cf. Gorge, n.]
- bandanna n.
- A species of silk or cotton handkerchief, having a uniformly dyed ground, usually of red or blue, with white or yellow figures of a circular, lozenge, or other simple form. [Hind. bandhn a mode of dyeing in which the cloth is tied in different places so as to prevent the parts tied from receiving the dye. Cf. Band, n.]
- chattering n.
- The act or habit of talking idly or rapidly, or of making inarticulate sounds; the sounds so made; noise made by the collision of the teeth; chatter.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Poem for a Decorative Panel is in the public domain. This text is taken from The weary blues, Project Gutenberg ebook #74745; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Langston Hughes, Poem for a Decorative Panel, in The Weary Blues (1926), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #74745, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hughes-weary-blues/poem-for-a-decorative-panel.html, id L01544.
Form and metre
Poem for a Decorative Panel is 17 lines in 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.6 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 29% 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---BB sunA · sunA · water · twilight · handkerchief · goldB · coldB
- 2 AA-BB treesA · treesA · parrots · dayB · greyB
- 3 -AA joy · songA · wrongA
- 4 AA awayA · awayA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| We should have a land of sun, | 7 | ······· |
| Of gorgeous sun, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| And a land of fragrant water | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Where the twilight | 4 | ··/· |
| Is a soft bandanna handkerchief | 9 | ······/˘˘ |
| Of rose and gold, | 4 | ···· |
| And not this land where life is cold. | 8 | ········ |
| We should have a land of trees, | 7 | ······· |
| Of tall thick trees | 4 | ···· |
| Bowed down with chattering parrots | 8 | ···/˘˘/˘ |
| Brilliant as the day, | 5 | /˘··· |
| And not this land where birds are grey. | 8 | ········ |
| Ah, we should have a land of joy, | 8 | ········ |
| Of love and joy and wine and song, | 8 | ········ |
| And not this land where joy is wrong. | 8 | ········ |
| Oh, sweet, away! | 4 | ··˘/ |
| Ah, my beloved one, away! | 8 | ··˘/˘·˘/ |
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.