To Morfydd
A voice on the winds,A voice by the waters,Wanders and cries:Oh! what are the winds?And what are the waters?Mine are your eyes!
Western the winds are,And western the waters,Where the light lies:Oh! what are the winds?And what are the waters?Mine are your eyes!
Cold, cold, grow the winds,And wild grow the waters,Where the sun dies:Oh! what are the winds?And what are the waters?Mine are your eyes!
And down the night winds,And down the night waters,The music flies:Oh! what are the winds?And what are the waters?Cold be the winds,And wild be the waters,So mine be your eyes!
About this text
To Morfydd is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #66520; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Lionel Johnson, To Morfydd, in Poems (1895), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66520, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/johnson-lionel-poems/to-morfydd.html, id L12464.
Form and metre
To Morfydd is 26 lines in 4 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABCABC, complete in 2 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.0 syllables. 9 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
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 ABCABC windsA · watersB · criesC · windsA · watersB · eyesC
- 2 -AB-AB are · watersA · liesB · winds · watersA · eyesB
- 3 ABCABC windsA · watersB · diesC · windsA · watersB · eyesC
- 4 ABCABABC windsA · watersB · fliesC · windsA · watersB · windsA · watersB · eyesC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A voice on the winds, | 5 | ····· |
| A voice by the waters, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Wanders and cries: | 4 | /˘·· |
| Oh! what are the winds? | 5 | ····· |
| And what are the waters? | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Mine are your eyes! | 4 | ···· |
| Western the winds are, | 5 | /˘··· |
| And western the waters, | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| Where the light lies: | 4 | ···· |
| Oh! what are the winds? | 5 | ····· |
| And what are the waters? | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Mine are your eyes! | 4 | ···· |
| Cold, cold, grow the winds, | 5 | ····· |
| And wild grow the waters, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Where the sun dies: | 4 | ···· |
| Oh! what are the winds? | 5 | ····· |
| And what are the waters? | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Mine are your eyes! | 4 | ···· |
| And down the night winds, | 5 | ····· |
| And down the night waters, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| The music flies: | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Oh! what are the winds? | 5 | ····· |
| And what are the waters? | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Cold be the winds, | 4 | ···· |
| And wild be the waters, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| So mine be your eyes! | 5 | ····· |
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.