Motion
Like a water-wheel awhirl,Like the rolling of a pearl;Yet these but illustrate,To fools, the final state.The earth's great axis spinning on,The never-resting pole of sky --Let us resolve their Whence and Why,And blend with all things into One;Beyond the bounds of thought and dream,Circling the vasty void as spheresWhose orbits round a thousand years:Behold the Key that fits my theme.
About this text
Motion 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, Motion, in A Lute of Jade (1909), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #390, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lute-of-jade/motion.html, id L15621.
Form and metre
Motion is 12 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 96%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.6 syllables. 8% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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.
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 AABB-CC-DEED awhirlA · pearlA · illustrateB · stateB · on · skyC · whyC · one · dreamD · spheresE · yearsE · themeD
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.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Like a water-wheel awhirl, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Like the rolling of a pearl; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Yet these but illustrate, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| To fools, the final state. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The earth's great axis spinning on, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| The never-resting pole of sky -- | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Let us resolve their Whence and Why, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| And blend with all things into One; | 8 | ········ |
| Beyond the bounds of thought and dream, | 8 | ········ |
| Circling the vasty void as spheres | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| Whose orbits round a thousand years: | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Behold the Key that fits my theme. | 8 | ˘/······ |
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.