The Bungler
You glow in my heartLike the flames of uncounted candles.But when I go to warm my hands,My clumsiness overturns the light,And then I stumbleAgainst the tables and chairs.
Words in this poem
- clumsiness n.
- The quality of being clusy.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Bungler 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, The Bungler, in Sword Blades and Poppy Seed (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1020, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lowell-amy-sword-blades/the-bungler.html, id L08219.
Form and metre
The Bungler is 6 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.2 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| You glow in my heart | 5 | ····· |
| Like the flames of uncounted candles. | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| But when I go to warm my hands, | 8 | ········ |
| My clumsiness overturns the light, | 9 | ·/˘˘/˘··· |
| And then I stumble | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Against the tables and chairs. | 7 | ···/˘·· |
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.