75. Fujiwara no Mototoshi
It is a promise unfulfilled,For which I humbly sue;The dainty little mugwort plantRelies upon the dew,And I rely—on you.
Words in this poem
- humbly adv.
- With humility; lowly.
- dainty n.
- Value; estimation; the gratification or pleasure taken in anything. [OE. deinie, dainte, deintie, deyntee, OF. deintié delicacy, orig., dignity, honor, fr. L. dignitas, fr. dignus worthy. See Deign, and cf. Dignity.]
- mugwort n.
- A somewhat aromatic composite weed (Artemisia vulgaris), at one time used medicinally; -- called also motherwort. [AS. mucgwyrt. Cf. Midge.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
75. Fujiwara no Mototoshi is in the public domain. This text is taken from A Hundred Verses from Old Japan (the Hyaku-nin-isshiu), Internet Archive, the William N. Porter translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Various, 75. Fujiwara no Mototoshi, in A Hundred Verses from Old Japan (1909), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hyakunin-isshu/75.html, id L28560.
Form and metre
75. Fujiwara no Mototoshi is 5 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes xaxaa. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic trimeter.
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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 xaxaa unfulfilledx · suea · plantx · dewa · youa
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| It is a promise unfulfilled, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| For which I humbly sue; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The dainty little mugwort plant | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| Relies upon the dew, | 6 | ˘/···· |
| And I rely—on you. | 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.