Fascination
Fair is the pine grove and the mountain streamThat gathers to the valley far below,The black-winged junks on the dim sea reach, adream,The pale blue firmament o'er banks of snow.And her, more fair, more supple smooth than jade,Gleaming among the dark red woods I follow:Now lingering, now as a bird afraidOf pirate wings she seeks the haven hollow.Vague, and beyond the daylight of recall,Into the cloudland past my spirit flies,As though before the gold of autumn's fall,Before the glow of the moon-flooded skies.
Words in this poem
- firmament n.
- Fixed foundation; established basis. [L. firmamentum, fr. firmare to make firm: cf. F. firmament. See Firm, v. & a.]
- 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.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Fascination 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, Fascination, in A Lute of Jade (1909), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #390, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lute-of-jade/fascination.html, id L15615.
Form and metre
Fascination is 12 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCDEFEF. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 17% 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 ABABCDCDEFEF streamA · belowB · adreamA · snowB · jadeC · followD · afraidC · hollowD · recallE · fliesF · fallE · skiesF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Fair is the pine grove and the mountain stream | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| That gathers to the valley far below, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| The black-winged junks on the dim sea reach, adream, | 11 | ··········· |
| The pale blue firmament o'er banks of snow. | 10 | ···/˘˘···· |
| And her, more fair, more supple smooth than jade, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Gleaming among the dark red woods I follow: | 11 | /˘·······/˘ |
| Now lingering, now as a bird afraid | 10 | ·/˘˘····˘/ |
| Of pirate wings she seeks the haven hollow. | 11 | ·/˘····/˘/˘ |
| Vague, and beyond the daylight of recall, | 10 | ·····/··˘/ |
| Into the cloudland past my spirit flies, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| As though before the gold of autumn's fall, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Before the glow of the moon-flooded skies. | 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.