Laurel · Vachel Lindsay · The Congo and Other Poems

What the Gray-winged Fairy Said

Vachel Lindsay (1879–1931) · 1914

common measure · 36 lines · from The Congo and Other Poems

The moon's a gong, hung in the wild,Whose song the fays hold dear.Of course you do not hear it, child.It takes a FAIRY ear.

The full moon is a splendid gongThat beats as night grows still.It sounds above the evening songOf dove or whippoorwill.

The moon? It is a griffin's egg,Hatching to-morrow night.And how the little boys will watchWith shouting and delightTo see him break the shell and stretchAnd creep across the sky.The boys will laugh. The little girls,I fear, may hide and cry.Yet gentle will the griffin be,Most decorous and fat,And walk up to the milky wayAnd lap it like a cat.

No man should stand before the moonTo make sweet song thereon,With dandified importance,His sense of humor gone.

Nay, let us don the motley cap,The jester's chastened mien,If we would woo that looking-glassAnd see what should be seen.

O mirror on fair Heaven's wall,We find there what we bring.So, let us smile in honest partAnd deck our souls and sing.

Yea, by the chastened jest aloneWill ghosts and terrors pass,And fays, or suchlike friendly things,Throw kisses through the glass.

Words in this poem

gong n.: A privy or jakes. Chaucer. Gong farmer, Gong man, a cleaner of privies. [AS. gong, gang, a going, passage, drain. See Gang.]
thereon adv.: On that or this. [AS. . See There, and On.]
dandified a.: Made up like a dandy; having the dress or manners of a dandy; buckish.
chastened a.: Corrected; disciplined; refined; purified; toned down. Sir. W.
jest n.: A deed; an action; a gest. [OE. jeste, geste, deed, action, story, tale, OF. geste, LL. gesta, orig., exploits, neut. pl. from L. gestus, p. p. of gerere to bear, carry, accomplish, perfor]

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

What the Gray-winged Fairy Said is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Congo, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #1021; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.

Cite as: Vachel Lindsay, What the Gray-winged Fairy Said, in The Congo and Other Poems (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1021, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lindsay-congo/what-the-gray-winged-fairy-said.html, id L00984.

Form and metre

What the Gray-winged Fairy Said is 36 lines in 7 stanzas. The commonest rhyme scheme is ABAB, in 2 of the 7 stanzas; the rest vary or could not be confirmed. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.9 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 28% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.

See other poems in common 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 ABAB wild^A · dear^B · child^A · ear^B
2 ABAB gong^A · still^B · song^A · whippoorwill^B
3 -A-A-B-BBC-C egg · night^A · watch · delight^A · stretch · sky^B · girls · cry^B · be^B · fat^C · way · cat^C
4 -A-A moon · thereon^A · importance · gone^A
5 -A-A cap · mien^A · glass · seen^A
6 -A-A wall · bring^A · part · sing^A
7 -A-A alone · pass^A · things · glass^A

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 common measure. How this is done.

Line	Syl.	Stress
The moon's a gong, hung in the wild,	8	········
Whose song the fays hold dear.	6	······
Of course you do not hear it, child.	8	········
It takes a FAIRY ear.	6	···/˘·
The full moon is a splendid gong	8	·····/˘·
That beats as night grows still.	6	······
It sounds above the evening song	8	·····/˘·
Of dove or whippoorwill.	5	···/˘
The moon? It is a griffin's egg,	8	·····/˘·
Hatching to-morrow night.	6	/˘·/˘·
And how the little boys will watch	8	···/˘···
With shouting and delight	6	·/˘·˘/
To see him break the shell and stretch	8	········
And creep across the sky.	6	··˘/··
The boys will laugh. The little girls,	8	·····/˘·
I fear, may hide and cry.	6	······
Yet gentle will the griffin be,	8	·/˘··/˘·
Most decorous and fat,	6	·/˘˘··
And walk up to the milky way	8	·····/˘·
And lap it like a cat.	6	······
No man should stand before the moon	8	········
To make sweet song thereon,	6	····˘/
With dandified importance,	7	·/˘˘˘/˘
His sense of humor gone.	6	···/˘·
Nay, let us don the motley cap,	8	·····/˘·
The jester's chastened mien,	6	·/˘/˘·
If we would woo that looking-glass	8	·····/˘·
And see what should be seen.	6	······
O mirror on fair Heaven's wall,	8	·/˘··/˘·
We find there what we bring.	6	······
So, let us smile in honest part	8	·····/˘·
And deck our souls and sing.	6	··/···
Yea, by the chastened jest alone	8	···/˘·˘/
Will ghosts and terrors pass,	6	···/˘·
And fays, or suchlike friendly things,	8	·····/˘·
Throw kisses through the glass.	6	·/˘···

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.

More by Vachel Lindsay

The Congo and Other Poems