Sorrow of Mydath
Weary the cry of the wind is, weary the sea,Weary the heart and the mind and the body of me.Would I were out of it, done with it, would I could beA white gull crying along the desolate sands!
Outcast, derelict soul in a body accurst,Standing drenched with the spindrift, standing athirst,For the cool green waves of death to arise and burstIn a tide of quiet for me on the desolate sands.
Would that the waves and the long white hair of the sprayWould gather in splendid terror and blot me awayTo the sunless place of the wrecks where the waters swayGently, dreamily, quietly over desolate sands!
Words in this poem
- outcast a.
- Cast out; degraded. [Cf. Sw. utkasta to cast out.]
- derelict a.
- Given up or forsaken by the natural owner or guardian; left and abandoned; as, derelict lands. [L. derelictus, p. p. of derelinquere to forsake wholly, to abandon; de- + relinquere to leave. See Relinquish.]
- accurst p. p.
- Doomed to destruction or misery; cursed; hence, bad enough to be under the curse; execrable; detestable; exceedingly hateful; -- as, an accursed deed.
- athirst a.
- Wanting drink; thirsty. [OE. ofthurst, AS. ofpyrsted, p. p. of ofpyrstan; pref. of-, intensive + pyrstan to thirst. See Thirst.]
- sunless a.
- Destitute or deprived of the sun or its rays; shaded; shadowed.
- dreamily adv.
- As if in a dream; softly; slowly; languidly.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sorrow of Mydath is in the public domain. This text is taken from Salt-Water Ballads, Project Gutenberg ebook #52761; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Masefield, Sorrow of Mydath, in Salt-Water Ballads (1902), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #52761, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/masefield-salt-water/sorrow-of-mydath.html, id L12677.
Form and metre
Sorrow of Mydath is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. 84% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 12.3 syllables. 42% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 AAA- seaA · meA · beA · sands
- 2 A-A- accurstA · athirst · burstA · sands
- 3 AAA- sprayA · awayA · swayA · sands
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Weary the cry of the wind is, weary the sea, | 12 | /˘······/˘·· |
| Weary the heart and the mind and the body of me. | 13 | /˘·······/˘·· |
| Would I were out of it, done with it, would I could be | 13 | ············· |
| A white gull crying along the desolate sands! | 12 | ···/˘˘/·/˘·· |
| Outcast, derelict soul in a body accurst, | 12 | /·/˘····/˘·· |
| Standing drenched with the spindrift, standing athirst, | 12 | /˘·˘··/˘/˘˘/ |
| For the cool green waves of death to arise and burst | 12 | ········˘/·· |
| In a tide of quiet for me on the desolate sands. | 12 | ····/····/˘· |
| Would that the waves and the long white hair of the spray | 12 | ············ |
| Would gather in splendid terror and blot me away | 13 | ·/˘·/˘/˘···˘/ |
| To the sunless place of the wrecks where the waters sway | 13 | ··/˘······/˘· |
| Gently, dreamily, quietly over desolate sands! | 12 | /˘/˘˘/˘·/˘·· |
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.