The Dying Words of Stonewall Jackson
To Wilhelmina.(September, 1884.)
Wedding-Hymn.(August, 1884.)
In the Foam.
Barnacles.
Night.(May, 1884.)
June Dreams, in January.(September, 1884.)
Words in this poem
- 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
The Dying Words of Stonewall Jackson 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, The Dying Words of Stonewall Jackson, in Poems (1884), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #579, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lanier-poems/the-dying-words-of-stonewall-jackson.html, id L07603.
Form and metre
The Dying Words of Stonewall Jackson is 10 lines in 6 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is trochaic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 3.1 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in trochaic dimeter.
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.
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 trochaic dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| To Wilhelmina. | 5 | ··˘/˘ |
| (September, 1884.) | 3 | ˘/˘ |
| Wedding-Hymn. | 3 | /˘· |
| (August, 1884.) | 2 | /˘ |
| In the Foam. | 3 | ··· |
| Barnacles. | 3 | /˘˘ |
| Night. | 1 | · |
| (May, 1884.) | 1 | · |
| June Dreams, in January. | 7 | ···/˘·˘ |
| (September, 1884.) | 3 | ˘/˘ |
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.