Vision
I have drunken the red wine and flung the dice;Yet once in the noisy ale-house I have seen and heardThe dear pale lady with the mournful eyes,And a voice like that of a pure grey cooing bird.
With delicate white hands--white hands that I have kist(Oh frail white hands!)--she soothed my aching eyes;And her hair fell about her in a dim clinging mist,Like smoke from a golden incense burned in Paradise.
With gentle loving words, like shredded balm and myrrh,She healed with sweet forgiveness my black bitter sins,Then passed into the night, and I go seeking herDown the dark, silent streets, past the warm, lighted inns.
Words in this poem
- kist n.
- A chest; hence, a coffin. Jamieson. [See Chest.]
- aching a.
- That aches; continuously painful. See Ache.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Vision 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, Vision, in Salt-Water Ballads (1902), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #52761, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/masefield-salt-water/vision.html, id L12679.
Form and metre
Vision is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is alexandrines, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 11.9 syllables. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in alexandrines.
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 -A-A dice · heardA · eyes · birdA
- 2 A-A- kistA · eyes · mistA · paradise
- 3 ABAB myrrhA · sinsB · herA · innsB
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 alexandrines. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I have drunken the red wine and flung the dice; | 11 | ··/˘······· |
| Yet once in the noisy ale-house I have seen and heard | 13 | ····/˘······· |
| The dear pale lady with the mournful eyes, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And a voice like that of a pure grey cooing bird. | 12 | ·········/˘· |
| With delicate white hands--white hands that I have kist | 12 | ·/˘˘········ |
| (Oh frail white hands!)--she soothed my aching eyes; | 11 | ······˘·/˘· |
| And her hair fell about her in a dim clinging mist, | 13 | ··········/˘· |
| Like smoke from a golden incense burned in Paradise. | 13 | ····/˘/···/˘· |
| With gentle loving words, like shredded balm and myrrh, | 12 | ·/˘/˘··/˘··· |
| She healed with sweet forgiveness my black bitter sins, | 12 | ····˘/˘··/˘· |
| Then passed into the night, and I go seeking her | 12 | ·········/˘· |
| Down the dark, silent streets, past the warm, lighted inns. | 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.