By Rihaku
Note.--Jewel stairs, therefore a palace. Grievance,therefore there is something to complain, of. Gauzestockings, therefore a court lady, not a servant whocomplains. Clear autumn, therefore he has no excuse onaccount of weather. Also she has come early, for the dewhas not merely whitened the stairs, but has soaked herstockings. The poem is especially prized because she uttersno direct reproach.
Words in this poem
- grievance n.
- A cause of uneasiness and complaint; a wrong done and suffered; that which gives ground for remonstrance or resistance, as arising from injustice, tyranny, etc.; injury. [OF. grcvance. See Grieve, v. t.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
By Rihaku is in the public domain. This text is taken from Cathay, Project Gutenberg ebook #50155; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Ezra Pound, By Rihaku, in Cathay (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #50155, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/pound-cathay/by-rihaku.html, id L01236.
Form and metre
By Rihaku is 8 lines in a single stanza. The metre is trochaic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 77%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 11.9 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 75% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic hexameter.
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--- grievance · gauze · whoA · on · dewA · her · utters · reproach
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 trochaic hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Note.--Jewel stairs, therefore a palace. Grievance, | 11 | ·/˘····/˘/˘ |
| therefore there is something to complain, of. Gauze | 11 | ····/˘·˘/·· |
| stockings, therefore a court lady, not a servant who | 13 | /˘····/˘··/˘· |
| complains. Clear autumn, therefore he has no excuse on | 13 | ˘/·/˘·····˘/· |
| account of weather. Also she has come early, for the dew | 15 | ˘/·/˘/˘···/˘··· |
| has not merely whitened the stairs, but has soaked her | 12 | ··/˘/˘······ |
| stockings. The poem is especially prized because she utters | 15 | /˘·/˘·˘/˘····/˘ |
| no direct reproach. | 5 | ·˘/˘/ |
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.