The Jewel Stairs' Grievance
The jewelled steps are already quite white with dew,It is so late that the dew soaks my gauze stockings,And I let down the crystal curtainAnd watch the moon through the clear autumn.
About this text
The Jewel Stairs' Grievance 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, The Jewel Stairs' Grievance, in Cathay (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #50155, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/pound-cathay/the-jewel-stairs-grievance.html, id L01235.
Form and metre
The Jewel Stairs' Grievance is 4 lines in a single stanza. The lines average 10.5 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
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.
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The jewelled steps are already quite white with dew, | 12 | ·/˘··˘/˘···· |
| It is so late that the dew soaks my gauze stockings, | 12 | ··········/˘ |
| And I let down the crystal curtain | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| And watch the moon through the clear autumn. | 9 | ·······/˘ |
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.