Fay Song
My life is a dream--a dreamIn the moon’s cool beam;Some day I shall wake and desireA touch of the infinite fire.But now ’tis enough that I beIn the light of the sea;Enough that I climb with the cloudWhen the winds of the morning are loud;Enough that I fade with the starsWhen the door of the East unbars.
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Fay Song is in the public domain. This text is taken from The man with the hoe, and other poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #67012; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edwin Markham, Fay Song, in The Man with the Hoe, and Other Poems (1899), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #67012, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/markham-man-with-hoe/fay-song.html, id L24792.
Form and metre
Fay Song is 10 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets. The metre is anapaestic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in anapaestic trimeter.
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 AABBCCDDEE dreamA · beamA · desireB · fireB · beC · seaC · cloudD · loudD · starsE · unbarsE
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 anapaestic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| My life is a dream--a dream | 7 | ······· |
| In the moon’s cool beam; | 5 | ····· |
| Some day I shall wake and desire | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| A touch of the infinite fire. | 9 | ····/˘˘/˘ |
| But now ’tis enough that I be | 8 | ···˘/··· |
| In the light of the sea; | 6 | ······ |
| Enough that I climb with the cloud | 8 | ˘/······ |
| When the winds of the morning are loud; | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| Enough that I fade with the stars | 8 | ˘/······ |
| When the door of the East unbars. | 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.