The Poet Sings to Her Poet
O poet of the time to be,My conqueror, I began for thee.Enter into thy poet's pain,And take the riches of the rain,And make the perfect year for me.
Thou unto whom my lyre shall fall,Whene'er thou comest, hear my call.O, keep the promise of my lays,Take the sweet parable of my days;I trust thee with the aim of all.
And if thy thoughts unfold from me,Know that I too have hints of thee,Dim hopes that come across my mindIn the rare days of warmer wind,And tones of summer in the sea.
And I have set thy paths, I guideThy blossoms on the wild hillside.And I, thy bygone poet, shareThe flowers that throng thy feet whereI led thy feet before I died.
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,]
- bygone n.
- Something gone by or past; a past event.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Poet Sings to Her Poet is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #1186; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Alice Meynell, The Poet Sings to Her Poet, in Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1186, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/meynell-poems/the-poet-sings-to-her-poet.html, id L12850.
Form and metre
The Poet Sings to Her Poet is 20 lines in 4 stanzas of 5 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABBA, the Limerick. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.1 syllables. 20% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other limericks, 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 AABBA beA · theeA · painB · rainB · meA
- 2 AABBA fallA · callA · laysB · daysB · allA
- 3 AABBA meA · theeA · mindB · windB · seaA
- 4 AABBA guideA · hillsideA · shareB · whereB · diedA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| O poet of the time to be, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| My conqueror, I began for thee. | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| Enter into thy poet's pain, | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| And take the riches of the rain, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And make the perfect year for me. | 8 | ···˘/··· |
| Thou unto whom my lyre shall fall, | 8 | ········ |
| Whene'er thou comest, hear my call. | 9 | ········· |
| O, keep the promise of my lays, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Take the sweet parable of my days; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| I trust thee with the aim of all. | 8 | ········ |
| And if thy thoughts unfold from me, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Know that I too have hints of thee, | 8 | ········ |
| Dim hopes that come across my mind | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| In the rare days of warmer wind, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And tones of summer in the sea. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And I have set thy paths, I guide | 8 | ········ |
| Thy blossoms on the wild hillside. | 8 | ·/˘···/· |
| And I, thy bygone poet, share | 8 | ···/·/˘· |
| The flowers that throng thy feet where | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| I led thy feet before I died. | 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.