Exile
Across great plains of yellow sand,Where the whistling winds are blown,Over the cloud-topped mountain peaks,They wend their way alone.
Few are the pilgrims that attainMount Omi's heights afar;And the bright gleam of their standard growsFaint as the last pale star.
Dark the Ssuch`uan waters loom,Dark the Ssuch`uan hills,And day and night the monarch's lifeAn endless sorrow fills.
The brightness of the foreign moonSaddens his lonely heart;And a sound of a bell in the evening rainDoth rend his soul apart.
Words in this poem
- wend n.
- A large extent of ground; a perambulation; a circuit.
- afar adv.
- At, to, or from a great distance; far away; -- often used with from preceding, or off following; as, he was seen from afar; I saw him afar off. [Pref. a-.(for on or of) + far.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Exile 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, Exile, in A Lute of Jade (1909), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #390, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lute-of-jade/exile.html, id L15595.
Form and metre
Exile is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.2 syllables. 31% 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 -A-A sand · blownA · peaks · aloneA
- 2 -A-A attain · afarA · grows · starA
- 3 -A-A loom · hillsA · life · fillsA
- 4 -A-A moon · heartA · rain · apartA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Across great plains of yellow sand, | 8 | ˘/···/˘· |
| Where the whistling winds are blown, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Over the cloud-topped mountain peaks, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| They wend their way alone. | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Few are the pilgrims that attain | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Mount Omi's heights afar; | 6 | ····˘/ |
| And the bright gleam of their standard grows | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Faint as the last pale star. | 6 | ······ |
| Dark the Ssuch`uan waters loom, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Dark the Ssuch`uan hills, | 5 | ····· |
| And day and night the monarch's life | 8 | ·····/·· |
| An endless sorrow fills. | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| The brightness of the foreign moon | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Saddens his lonely heart; | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| And a sound of a bell in the evening rain | 11 | ········/˘· |
| Doth rend his soul apart. | 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.