Song of the Sea-wind
When the sun sets over the long blue waveI spring from my couch of rest,And I hurtle and boom over leagues of foamThat toss in the weltering west,I pipe a hymn to the headlands high,My comrades forevermore,And I chase the tricksy curls of foamO'er the glimmering sandy shore.
The moon is my friend on clear, white nightsWhen I ripple her silver way,And whistle blithely about the rocksLike an elfin thing at play;But anon I ravin with cloud and mistAnd wail 'neath a curdled sky,When the reef snarls yon like a questing beast,And the frightened ships go by.
I scatter the dawn across the seaLike wine of amber flungFrom a crystal goblet all far and fineWhere the morning star is hung;I blow from east and I blow from westWherever my longing be—The wind of the land is a hindered thingBut the ocean wind is free!
Words in this poem
- hurtle v. i.
- To meet with violence or shock; to clash; to jostle. [OE. hurtlen, freq. of hurten. See Hurt, v. t., and cf. Hurl.]
- tricksy a.
- Exhibiting artfulness; trickish. [From Trick.]
- blithely adv.
- In a blithe manner.
- elfin a.
- Relating to elves.
- anon adv.
- Straightway; at once. [OE. anoon, anon, anan, lit., in one (moment), fr. AS. on in + an one. See On and One.]
- ravin n.
- Food obtained by violence; plunder; prey; raven. [See 2d Raven.]
- wherever adv.
- At or in whatever place; wheresoever.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Song of the Sea-wind is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Watchman and Other Poems (New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1917; Toronto: McClelland, Goodchild and Stewart, 1916), Internet Archive; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: L. M. Montgomery, Song of the Sea-wind, in The Watchman and Other Poems (1916), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/montgomery-watchman/song-of-the-sea-wind.html, id L29366.
Form and metre
Song of the Sea-wind is 24 lines in 3 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 79%).
See 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 -ABA-CBC wave · restA · foamB · westA · high · forevermoreC · foamB · shoreC
- 2 -A-A-B-B nights · wayA · rocks · playA · mist · skyB · beast · byB
- 3 AB-B-A-A seaA · flungB · fine · hungB · west · beA · thing · freeA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| When the sun sets over the long blue wave | 9 | ········· |
| I spring from my couch of rest, | 7 | ······· |
| And I hurtle and boom over leagues of foam | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| That toss in the weltering west, | 8 | ····/˘˘· |
| I pipe a hymn to the headlands high, | 9 | ········· |
| My comrades forevermore, | 7 | ·/····· |
| And I chase the tricksy curls of foam | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| O'er the glimmering sandy shore. | 8 | ··/˘˘/˘· |
| The moon is my friend on clear, white nights | 9 | ········· |
| When I ripple her silver way, | 8 | ··/˘·/˘· |
| And whistle blithely about the rocks | 9 | ·/˘/˘···· |
| Like an elfin thing at play; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| But anon I ravin with cloud and mist | 10 | ·˘/·/˘···· |
| And wail 'neath a curdled sky, | 6 | ······ |
| When the reef snarls yon like a questing beast, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And the frightened ships go by. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| I scatter the dawn across the sea | 9 | ·/˘··˘/·· |
| Like wine of amber flung | 6 | ···/˘· |
| From a crystal goblet all far and fine | 10 | ··/˘/˘···· |
| Where the morning star is hung; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| I blow from east and I blow from west | 9 | ········· |
| Wherever my longing be— | 7 | ˘/˘·/˘· |
| The wind of the land is a hindered thing | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| But the ocean wind is free! | 7 | ··/˘··· |
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.