Being Selections from the Classical Poets of China

Various (about 750), translated by L. Cranmer-Byng · 1909

iambic tetrameter · 5 lines · from A Lute of Jade

Rendered with an Introductionby L. Cranmer-ByngAuthor of "The Odes of Confucius"

With lutes of gold and lutes of JadeLi Po

About this text

Being Selections from the Classical Poets of China is in the public domain. This text is taken from A Lute of Jade, Project Gutenberg ebook #390, the L. Cranmer-Byng translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.

Cite as: Various, Being Selections from the Classical Poets of China, in A Lute of Jade (1909), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #390, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lute-of-jade/being-selections-from-the-classical-poets-of-china.html, id L15553.

Form and metre

Being Selections from the Classical Poets of China is 5 lines in 2 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter. 85% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.6 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.

LineSyl.Stress
Rendered with an Introduction9/˘˘···˘/˘
by L. Cranmer-Byng5··/˘·
Author of "The Odes of Confucius"9/˘····˘/˘
With lutes of gold and lutes of Jade8········
Li Po2··

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 Various