A Young Man’s Song
My girl is true, my girl is sweet,When in the town we chance to meetIt almost seems to me as thoughA rose were growing in the street.
And if I see her in the lane,Though winter’s freezing might and main,I half suspect, in spite of all,That Spring’s upon us once again.
When luck is out and things look blueAnd folks are up against me too,There’s naught in that to cast me downBecause she trusts me through and through.
And at the altar-railings whenMy faith and truth I swear, oh thenI’ll pray, “God strike me if I fail--So help me! World without end. Amen!”
Words in this poem
- folks n.
- In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
- amen interj.
- An expression used at the end of prayers, and meaning, So be it. At the end of a creed, it is a solemn asseveration of belief. [L. amen, Gr. am certainly, truly.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Young Man’s Song is in the public domain. This text is taken from Bonnie Joann, and other poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #69484; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Violet Jacob, A Young Man’s Song, in Bonnie Joann, and Other Poems (1921), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #69484, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/jacob-bonnie-joann/a-young-man-s-song.html, id L21953.
Form and metre
A Young Man’s Song is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 50% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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-A sweetA · meetA · though · streetA
- 2 AA-A laneA · mainA · all · againA
- 3 AA-A blueA · tooA · down · throughA
- 4 AA-A whenA · thenA · fail · amenA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| My girl is true, my girl is sweet, | 8 | ········ |
| When in the town we chance to meet | 8 | ········ |
| It almost seems to me as though | 8 | ·/······ |
| A rose were growing in the street. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And if I see her in the lane, | 8 | ········ |
| Though winter’s freezing might and main, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| I half suspect, in spite of all, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| That Spring’s upon us once again. | 8 | ······˘/ |
| When luck is out and things look blue | 8 | ········ |
| And folks are up against me too, | 8 | ········ |
| There’s naught in that to cast me down | 8 | ········ |
| Because she trusts me through and through. | 8 | ········ |
| And at the altar-railings when | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| My faith and truth I swear, oh then | 8 | ········ |
| I’ll pray, “God strike me if I fail-- | 8 | ········ |
| So help me! World without end. Amen!” | 9 | ·······˘/ |
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.