These Songs Will Perish
These songs will perish like the shapes of air--The singer and the songs die out forever;But star-eyed Truth (greater than song or singer)Sweeps hurrying on: far off she sees a gleamUpon a peak. She cried to man of oldTo build the enduring, glad Fraternal State--Cries yet through all the ruins of the world--Through Karnack, through the stones of Babylon--Cries for a moment through these fading songs.
On wingèd feet, a form of fadeless youth,She goes to meet the coming centuries,And, hurrying, snatches up some human reed,Blows through it once her terror-bearing note,And breaks and throws away. It is enoughIf we can be a bugle at her lips,To scatter her contagion on mankind.
Words in this poem
- fraternal a.
- Pf, pertaining to, or involving, brethren; becoming to brothers; brotherly; as, fraternal affection; a fraternal embrace. [F. fraternel, LL. fraternalis, fr. L. fraternus, fr. frater brother. See Brother.]
- fading n.
- An Irish dance; also, the burden of a song.
- fadeless a.
- Not liable to fade; unfading.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
These Songs Will Perish 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, These Songs Will Perish, 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/these-songs-will-perish.html, id L24806.
Form and metre
These Songs Will Perish is 16 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| These songs will perish like the shapes of air-- | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| The singer and the songs die out forever; | 11 | ·/˘·····˘/˘ |
| But star-eyed Truth (greater than song or singer) | 11 | ····/˘···/˘ |
| Sweeps hurrying on: far off she sees a gleam | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Upon a peak. She cried to man of old | 10 | ·········· |
| To build the enduring, glad Fraternal State-- | 11 | ···˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| Cries yet through all the ruins of the world-- | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Through Karnack, through the stones of Babylon-- | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Cries for a moment through these fading songs. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| On wingèd feet, a form of fadeless youth, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| She goes to meet the coming centuries, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘˘ |
| And, hurrying, snatches up some human reed, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Blows through it once her terror-bearing note, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| And breaks and throws away. It is enough | 10 | ····˘/··˘/ |
| If we can be a bugle at her lips, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| To scatter her contagion on mankind. | 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.