Lake Shang
Oh! she is like a picture in the spring,This lake of Shang, with the wild hills gatheringInto a winding garden at the baseOf stormless waters; pines, deep blue, enlaceThe lessening slopes, and broken moonlight gleamsAcross the waves like pearls we thread in dreams.Like a woof of jasper strands the corn unfolds,Field upon field beyond the quiet wolds;The late-blown rush flaunts in the dusk sereneHer netted sash and slender skirt of green.Sadly I turn my prow toward the shore,The dream behind me and the world before.O Lake of Shang, his feet may wander farWhose soul thou holdest mirrored as a star.
Words in this poem
- stormless a.
- Without storms.
- enlace v. t.
- To bind or encircle with lace, or as with lace; to lace; to encircle; to enfold; hence, to entangle.
- sadly adv.
- Wearily; heavily; firmly.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Lake Shang 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, Lake Shang, in A Lute of Jade (1909), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #390, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lute-of-jade/lake-shang.html, id L15600.
Form and metre
Lake Shang is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 43% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in heroic couplets, 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 AABBCCDDEEFFGG springA · gatheringA · baseB · enlaceB · gleamsC · dreamsC · unfoldsD · woldsD · sereneE · greenE · shoreF · beforeF · farG · starG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Oh! she is like a picture in the spring, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| This lake of Shang, with the wild hills gathering | 11 | ········/˘˘ |
| Into a winding garden at the base | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Of stormless waters; pines, deep blue, enlace | 10 | ·/˘/˘···˘/ |
| The lessening slopes, and broken moonlight gleams | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/·· |
| Across the waves like pearls we thread in dreams. | 10 | ˘/········ |
| Like a woof of jasper strands the corn unfolds, | 11 | ····/˘···˘/ |
| Field upon field beyond the quiet wolds; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The late-blown rush flaunts in the dusk serene | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Her netted sash and slender skirt of green. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Sadly I turn my prow toward the shore, | 10 | /˘········ |
| The dream behind me and the world before. | 10 | ·········· |
| O Lake of Shang, his feet may wander far | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Whose soul thou holdest mirrored as a star. | 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.