Song of Life
A traveller on a dusty roadStrewed acorns on the lea;And one took root and sprouted up,And grew into a tree.Love sought its shade at evening-time,To breathe its early vows;And Age was pleased, in heights of noon,To bask beneath its boughs.The dormouse loved its dangling twigs,The birds sweet music bore--It stood a glory in its place,A blessing evermore.
A little spring had lost its wayAmid the grass and fern;A passing stranger scooped a wellWhere weary men might turn.He walled it in, and hung with careA ladle on the brink;He thought not of the deed he did,But judged that Toil might drink.He passed again; and lo! the well,By summer never dried,Had cooled ten thousand parchéd tongues,And saved a life beside.
A nameless man, amid the crowdThat thronged the daily mart,Let fall a word of hope and love,Unstudied from the heart,A whisper on the tumult thrown,A transitory breath,It raised a brother from the dust,It saved a soul from death.O germ! O fount! O word of love!O thought at random cast!Ye were but little at the first,But mighty at the last.
Words in this poem
- bask v. i.
- To lie in warmth; to be exposed to genial heat. [OScand. ba to bathe one's self, or perh. bakask to bake one's self, sk being reflexive. See Bath, n., Bake, v. t.]
- dormouse n.
- A small European rodent of the genus Myoxus, of several species. They live in trees and feed on nuts, acorns, etc.; -- so called because they are usually torpid in winter. [Perh. fr. F. dormir to sleep (Prov. E. dorm to doze) + E. mouse; or perh. changed fr. F. dormeuse, fem., a sleeper, though not found in the sense of a dormouse.]
- evermore adv.
- During eternity; always; forever; for an indefinite period; at all times; -- often used substantively with for.
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- brink n.
- The edge, margin, or border of a steep place, as of a precipice; a bank or edge, as of a river or pit; a verge; a border; as, the brink of a chasm. Also Fig. [Dan. brink edge, verge; akin to Sw. brink declivity, hill, Icel. brekka; cf. LG. brink a grassy hill, W. bryn hill, bryncyn hillock.]
- nameless a.
- Without a name; not having been given a name; as, a nameless star.
- mart v. t.
- To buy or sell in, or as in, a mart.
- unstudied a.
- Not studied; not acquired by study; unlabored; natural.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Song of Life is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems Every Child Should Know The What-Every-Child-Should-Know-Library, Project Gutenberg ebook #16436; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Mary E. Burt, Song of Life, in Poems Every Child Should Know (1904), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16436, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/poems-every-child/song-of-life.html, id L25191.
Form and metre
Song of Life is 36 lines in 3 stanzas of 12 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%).
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 -A-A-B-B-C-C road · leaA · up · treeA · time · vowsB · noon · boughsB · twigs · boreC · place · evermoreC
- 2 -ABA-C-CBD-D way · fernA · wellB · turnA · care · brinkC · did · drinkC · wellB · driedD · tongues · besideD
- 3 -ABA-C-CBD-D crowd · martA · loveB · heartA · thrown · breathC · dust · deathC · loveB · castD · first · lastD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A traveller on a dusty road | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Strewed acorns on the lea; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And one took root and sprouted up, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And grew into a tree. | 6 | ······ |
| Love sought its shade at evening-time, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| To breathe its early vows; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And Age was pleased, in heights of noon, | 8 | ········ |
| To bask beneath its boughs. | 6 | ······ |
| The dormouse loved its dangling twigs, | 8 | ·/···/˘· |
| The birds sweet music bore-- | 6 | ···/˘· |
| It stood a glory in its place, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| A blessing evermore. | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| A little spring had lost its way | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Amid the grass and fern; | 6 | ˘/···· |
| A passing stranger scooped a well | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Where weary men might turn. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| He walled it in, and hung with care | 8 | ········ |
| A ladle on the brink; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| He thought not of the deed he did, | 8 | ········ |
| But judged that Toil might drink. | 6 | ······ |
| He passed again; and lo! the well, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| By summer never dried, | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Had cooled ten thousand parchéd tongues, | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| And saved a life beside. | 6 | ····˘/ |
| A nameless man, amid the crowd | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| That thronged the daily mart, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Let fall a word of hope and love, | 8 | ········ |
| Unstudied from the heart, | 6 | ˘/˘··· |
| A whisper on the tumult thrown, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| A transitory breath, | 6 | ·/˘·˘· |
| It raised a brother from the dust, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| It saved a soul from death. | 6 | ······ |
| O germ! O fount! O word of love! | 8 | ········ |
| O thought at random cast! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Ye were but little at the first, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| But mighty at the last. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
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.