Song in a Minor Key
There's a place I know where the birds swing low,And wayward vines go roaming,Where the lilacs nod, and a marble godIs pale, in scented gloaming.And at sunset there comes a lady fairWhose eyes are deep with yearning.By an old, old gate does the lady waitHer own true love's returning.
But the days go by, and the lilacs die,And trembling birds seek cover;Yet the lady stands, with her long white handsHeld out to greet her lover.And it's there she'll stay till the shadowy dayA monument they grave her.She will always wait by the same old gate,--The gate her true love gave her.
Words in this poem
- wayward a.
- Taking one's own way; disobedient; froward; perverse; willful. [OE. weiward, for aweiward, i. e., turned away. See Away, and -ward.]
- gloaming n.
- Twilight; dusk; the fall of the evening. [Scot. & North of Eng., and in poetry.] Hogg. [See Gloom.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Song in a Minor Key is in the public domain. This text is taken from Enough Rope: Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #68353; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Dorothy Parker, Song in a Minor Key, in Enough Rope (1926), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #68353, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/parker-enough-rope/song-in-a-minor-key.html, id L27403.
Form and metre
Song in a Minor Key is 16 lines in 2 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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-B-B low · roamingA · god · gloamingA · fair · yearningB · wait · returningB
- 2 -A-A-B-B die · coverA · hands · loverA · day · herB · gate · herB
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| There's a place I know where the birds swing low, | 10 | ·········· |
| And wayward vines go roaming, | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| Where the lilacs nod, and a marble god | 10 | ··/····/˘· |
| Is pale, in scented gloaming. | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| And at sunset there comes a lady fair | 10 | ··/····/˘· |
| Whose eyes are deep with yearning. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| By an old, old gate does the lady wait | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Her own true love's returning. | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| But the days go by, and the lilacs die, | 10 | ·······/·· |
| And trembling birds seek cover; | 8 | ·/˘˘··/˘ |
| Yet the lady stands, with her long white hands | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| Held out to greet her lover. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| And it's there she'll stay till the shadowy day | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| A monument they grave her. | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| She will always wait by the same old gate,-- | 10 | ··/······· |
| The gate her true love gave her. | 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.