Flight
Clouds upon clouds of dust envelopingThe lofty gates of the proud capital.On, on, to the south-west, a living wall,Ten thousand battle-chariots on the wing.
Feathers and jewels flashing through the cloudOnwards, and then an halt. The legions waitA hundred li beyond the western gate;The great walls loom behind them wrapt in cloud.
No further stirs the sullen soldiery,Naught but the last dread office can avail,Till she of the dark moth-eyebrows, lily pale,Shines through tall avenues of spears to die.
Upon the ground lie ornaments of gold,One with the dust, and none to gather them,Hair-pins of jade and many a costly gem,Kingfishers' wings and golden birds scarce cold.
The king has sought the darkness of his hands,Veiling the eyes that looked for help in vain,And as he turns to gaze upon the slain,His tears, her blood, are mingled on the sands.
Words in this poem
- sullen a.
- Lonely; solitary; desolate. Wyclif (Job iii. 14). [OE. solein, solain, lonely, sullen; through Old French fr. (assumed) LL. solanus solitary, fr. L. solus alone. See Sole, a.]
- soldiery n.
- A body of soldiers; soldiers, collectivelly; the military.
- scarce a.
- Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
- veiling n.
- A veil; a thin covering; also, material for making veils.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Flight 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, Flight, in A Lute of Jade (1909), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #390, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lute-of-jade/flight.html, id L15594.
Form and metre
Flight is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABBA, complete in 4 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 15% 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 ABBA envelopingA · capitalB · wallB · wingA
- 2 ABBA cloudA · waitB · gateB · cloudA
- 3 -AA- soldiery · availA · paleA · die
- 4 ABBA goldA · themB · gemB · coldA
- 5 ABBA handsA · vainB · slainB · sandsA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Clouds upon clouds of dust enveloping | 10 | ······˘/˘˘ |
| The lofty gates of the proud capital. | 10 | ·/˘····/˘˘ |
| On, on, to the south-west, a living wall, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Ten thousand battle-chariots on the wing. | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| Feathers and jewels flashing through the cloud | 10 | /˘·/˘/˘··· |
| Onwards, and then an halt. The legions wait | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| A hundred li beyond the western gate; | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| The great walls loom behind them wrapt in cloud. | 10 | ·········· |
| No further stirs the sullen soldiery, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘˘ |
| Naught but the last dread office can avail, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Till she of the dark moth-eyebrows, lily pale, | 11 | ······/·/˘· |
| Shines through tall avenues of spears to die. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Upon the ground lie ornaments of gold, | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| One with the dust, and none to gather them, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Hair-pins of jade and many a costly gem, | 10 | ·····/·/˘· |
| Kingfishers' wings and golden birds scarce cold. | 10 | /·˘··/˘··· |
| The king has sought the darkness of his hands, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Veiling the eyes that looked for help in vain, | 10 | /˘········ |
| And as he turns to gaze upon the slain, | 10 | ·········· |
| His tears, her blood, are mingled on the sands. | 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.