Street Cries
I. Remonstrance.(April, 1883.)II. The Ship of Earth.III. How Love Looked for Hell.(March, 1884.)IV. Tyranny.(February, 1868.)V. Life and Song.(September, 1868.)VI. To Richard Wagner.(November, 1877.)VII. A Song of Love.(January, 1884.)
Words in this poem
- remonstrance n.
- The act of remonstrating; as: (a) A pointing out; manifestation; proof; demonstration. [Cf. OF. remonstrance, F. remonstrance. See Remonstrate.]
- january n.
- The first month of the year, containing thirty-one days. [L. Januarius, fr. Janus an old Latin deity, the god of the sun and the year, to whom the month of January was sacred; cf. janua a door, Skr. ya to go.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Street Cries is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Sidney Lanier, Project Gutenberg ebook #579; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Sidney Lanier, Street Cries, in Poems (1884), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #579, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lanier-poems/street-cries.html, id L19115.
Form and metre
Street Cries is 13 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.5 syllables. 50% 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 -A--A-A-A-A-A remonstrance · — · earth · hell · — · tyranny · — · song · — · wagner · — · love · —
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I. Remonstrance. | 4 | ·˘/˘ |
| (April, 1883.) | 2 | /˘ |
| II. The Ship of Earth. | 5 | ····· |
| III. How Love Looked for Hell. | 6 | ······ |
| (March, 1884.) | 1 | · |
| IV. Tyranny. | 4 | ·/˘˘ |
| (February, 1868.) | 4 | /˘·˘ |
| V. Life and Song. | 4 | ···· |
| (September, 1868.) | 3 | ˘/˘ |
| VI. To Richard Wagner. | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| (November, 1877.) | 3 | ˘/˘ |
| VII. A Song of Love. | 5 | ····· |
| (January, 1884.) | 4 | /˘·˘ |
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.