Song
We sailed across the silver seasAnd saw the sea-blue bowers,We saw the purple cherry trees,And all the foreign flowers,We travelled in a palanquinBeyond the caravan,And yet our hearts had never seenThe Flower of Old Japan.
The Flower above all other flowers,The Flower that never dies;Before whose throne the scented hoursOffer their sacrifice;The Flower that here on earth belowReveals the heavenly plan;But only little children knowThe Flower of Old Japan.
There, in the dim blue flowery plainWe wished with the magic glass againTo go to the Flower of the song's desire:And o'er us the whole of the soft blue skyFlashed like fire as the world went by,And far beneath us the sea like fireFlashed in one swift blue brilliant stream,And the journey was done, like a change in a dream.
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Song is in the public domain. This text is taken from Collected Poems: Volume One, Project Gutenberg ebook #30501; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Alfred Noyes, Song, in Collected Poems, Volume One (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #30501, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/noyes-collected/song-4.html, id L21408.
Form and metre
Song is 24 lines in 3 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%).
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 ABAB-C-C seasA · bowersB · treesA · flowersB · palanquin · caravanC · seen · japanC
- 2 AAA-BCBC flowersA · diesA · hoursA · sacrifice · belowB · planC · knowB · japanC
- 3 AABCCBDD plainA · againA · desireB · skyC · byC · fireB · streamD · dreamD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| We sailed across the silver seas | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| And saw the sea-blue bowers, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| We saw the purple cherry trees, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| And all the foreign flowers, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| We travelled in a palanquin | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Beyond the caravan, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And yet our hearts had never seen | 9 | ··/˘··/˘· |
| The Flower of Old Japan. | 7 | ·/˘··˘/ |
| The Flower above all other flowers, | 10 | ·/˘···/˘/˘ |
| The Flower that never dies; | 7 | ·/˘·/˘· |
| Before whose throne the scented hours | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| Offer their sacrifice; | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| The Flower that here on earth below | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| Reveals the heavenly plan; | 7 | ˘/·/˘˘· |
| But only little children know | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| The Flower of Old Japan. | 7 | ·/˘··˘/ |
| There, in the dim blue flowery plain | 9 | ·····/˘˘· |
| We wished with the magic glass again | 9 | ····/˘·˘/ |
| To go to the Flower of the song's desire: | 11 | ····/···˘/˘ |
| And o'er us the whole of the soft blue sky | 10 | ·········· |
| Flashed like fire as the world went by, | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| And far beneath us the sea like fire | 10 | ········/˘ |
| Flashed in one swift blue brilliant stream, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And the journey was done, like a change in a dream. | 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.