A Blockhead
Before me lies a mass of shapeless days,Unseparated atoms, and I mustSort them apart and live them. Sifted dustCovers the formless heap. Reprieves, delays,There are none, ever. As a monk who praysThe sliding beads asunder, so I thrustEach tasteless particle aside, and justBegin again the task which never stays.And I have known a glory of great suns,When days flashed by, pulsing with joy and fire!Drunk bubbled wine in goblets of desire,And felt the whipped blood laughing as it runs!Spilt is that liquor, my too hasty handThrew down the cup, and did not understand.
Words in this poem
- formless a.
- Shapeless; without a determinate form; wanting regularity of shape.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Blockhead is in the public domain. This text is taken from Sword Blades and Poppy Seed, Project Gutenberg ebook #1020; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Amy Lowell, A Blockhead, in Sword Blades and Poppy Seed (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1020, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lowell-amy-sword-blades/a-blockhead.html, id L08210.
Form and metre
A Blockhead is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 57% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 43% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in heroic couplets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ABBAABBACDDCEE daysA · mustB · dustB · delaysA · praysA · thrustB · justB · staysA · sunsC · fireD · desireD · runsC · handE · understandE
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Before me lies a mass of shapeless days, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Unseparated atoms, and I must | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Sort them apart and live them. Sifted dust | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| Covers the formless heap. Reprieves, delays, | 10 | /˘·/˘·˘/˘/ |
| There are none, ever. As a monk who prays | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| The sliding beads asunder, so I thrust | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘··· |
| Each tasteless particle aside, and just | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘˘/·· |
| Begin again the task which never stays. | 10 | ˘/˘/···/˘· |
| And I have known a glory of great suns, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| When days flashed by, pulsing with joy and fire! | 11 | ····/˘···/˘ |
| Drunk bubbled wine in goblets of desire, | 11 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/˘ |
| And felt the whipped blood laughing as it runs! | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Spilt is that liquor, my too hasty hand | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Threw down the cup, and did not understand. | 10 | ········˘/ |
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.