Listening
I LISTEN to the stillness of you,My dear, among it all;I feel your silence touch my words as I talk,And take them in thrall.
My words fly off a forgeThe length of a spark;I see the night-sky easily sip themUp in the dark.
The lark sings loud and glad,Yet I am not lothThat silence should take the song and the birdAnd lose them both.
A train goes roaring south,The steam-flag flying;I see the stealthy shadow of silenceAlongside going.
And off the forge of the world,Whirling in the draught of life,Go sparks of myriad people, fillingThe night with strife.
Yet they never change the darknessOr blench it with noise;Alone on the perfect silenceThe stars are buoys.
Words in this poem
- stillness n.
- The quality or state of being still; quietness; silence; calmness; inactivity.
- myriad n.
- The number of ten thousand; ten thousand persons or things. [Gr. myriade.]
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
- blench v. t.
- To baffle; to disconcert; to turn away; -- also, to obstruct; to hinder.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Listening is in the public domain. This text is taken from Amores: Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #22531; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: D. H. Lawrence, Listening, in Amores (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22531, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lawrence-amores/listening.html, id L13576.
Form and metre
Listening is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is short measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.7 syllables. 7 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 33% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in short measure.
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 you · allA · talk · thrallA
- 2 -A-A forge · sparkA · them · darkA
- 5 -A-A world · lifeA · filling · strifeA
- 6 -A-A darkness · noiseA · silence · buoysA
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 short measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I LISTEN to the stillness of you, | 9 | ·/˘··/˘·· |
| My dear, among it all; | 6 | ······ |
| I feel your silence touch my words as I talk, | 11 | ···/˘······ |
| And take them in thrall. | 5 | ····· |
| My words fly off a forge | 6 | ······ |
| The length of a spark; | 5 | ····· |
| I see the night-sky easily sip them | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| Up in the dark. | 4 | ···· |
| The lark sings loud and glad, | 6 | ······ |
| Yet I am not loth | 5 | ····· |
| That silence should take the song and the bird | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| And lose them both. | 4 | ···· |
| A train goes roaring south, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The steam-flag flying; | 5 | ···/˘ |
| I see the stealthy shadow of silence | 10 | ···/˘/··/˘ |
| Alongside going. | 5 | ˘///˘ |
| And off the forge of the world, | 7 | ······· |
| Whirling in the draught of life, | 7 | /˘····· |
| Go sparks of myriad people, filling | 10 | ···/˘˘/˘/˘ |
| The night with strife. | 4 | ···· |
| Yet they never change the darkness | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Or blench it with noise; | 5 | ····· |
| Alone on the perfect silence | 8 | ˘/··˘//˘ |
| The stars are buoys. | 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.