Irony
An arid daylight shines along the beachDried to a grey monotony of tone,And stranded jelly-fish melt soft uponThe sun-baked pebbles, far beyond their reachSparkles a wet, reviving sea. Here bleachThe skeletons of fishes, every bonePolished and stark, like traceries of stone,The joints and knuckles hardened each to each.And they are dead while waiting for the sea,The moon-pursuing sea, to come again.Their hearts are blown away on the hot breeze.Only the shells and stones can wait to beWashed bright. For living things, who suffer pain,May not endure till time can bring them ease.
Words in this poem
- daylight n.
- The light of day as opposed to the darkness of night; the light of the sun, as opposed to that of the moon or to artificial light.
- monotony n.
- A frequent recurrence of the same tone or sound, producing a dull uniformity; absence of variety, as in speaking or singing. [Gr. monotonie. See Monotonius.]
- stark adv.
- Wholly; entirely; absolutely; quite; as, stark mind.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Irony 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, Irony, in Sword Blades and Poppy Seed (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1020, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lowell-amy-sword-blades/irony.html, id L08212.
Form and metre
Irony is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 43% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See 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 AB-AABBACDECDE beachA · toneB · upon · reachA · bleachA · boneB · stoneB · eachA · seaC · againD · breezeE · beC · painD · easeE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| An arid daylight shines along the beach | 10 | ·/˘/··˘/·· |
| Dried to a grey monotony of tone, | 10 | ····˘/˘˘·· |
| And stranded jelly-fish melt soft upon | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| The sun-baked pebbles, far beyond their reach | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Sparkles a wet, reviving sea. Here bleach | 10 | /˘··˘/˘··· |
| The skeletons of fishes, every bone | 10 | ·/˘˘·/˘/˘· |
| Polished and stark, like traceries of stone, | 10 | /˘˘······· |
| The joints and knuckles hardened each to each. | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| And they are dead while waiting for the sea, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| The moon-pursuing sea, to come again. | 10 | ··˘/˘···˘/ |
| Their hearts are blown away on the hot breeze. | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| Only the shells and stones can wait to be | 10 | /˘········ |
| Washed bright. For living things, who suffer pain, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| May not endure till time can bring them ease. | 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.