A Ballad of the Mulberry Road
The sun rises in south east corner of thingsTo look on the tall house of the ShinFor they have a daughter named Rafu,(pretty girl)She made the name for herself: “Gauze Veil,”For she feeds mulberries to silkworms,She gets them by the south wall of thetown.
With green strings she makes the warp of her basket,She makes the shoulder-straps of her basketfrom the boughs of Katsura,And she piles her hair up on the left side of her head-piece.
Her earrings are made of pearl,Her underskirt is of green pattern-silk,Her overskirt is the same silk dyed in purple,And when men going by look on RafuThey set down their burdens,They stand and twirl their moustaches.
Words in this poem
- underskirt n.
- A petticoat; the foundation skirt of a draped dress.
- overskirt n.
- An upper skirt, shorter than the dress, and usually draped.
- twirl v. t.
- To move or turn round rapidly; to whirl round; to move and turn rapidly with the fingers. [Cf. AS. þwiril a churn staff, a stirrer, flail, þweran, aþweran, to agitate, twirl, G. zwirlen, quirlen, to twirl, to turn round or about, quirl a twirling stic]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Ballad of the Mulberry Road is in the public domain. This text is taken from Lustra of Ezra Pound, Project Gutenberg ebook #55564; 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, A Ballad of the Mulberry Road, in Lustra (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #55564, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/pound-lustra/a-ballad-of-the-mulberry-road.html, id L01321.
Form and metre
A Ballad of the Mulberry Road is 18 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 70%). 86% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.6 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 28% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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.
- 2 AA-- basketA · basketA · katsura · piece
- 3 A-A--- pearlA · silk · purpleA · rafu · burdens · moustaches
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The sun rises in south east corner of things | 11 | ··/˘···/˘·· |
| To look on the tall house of the Shin | 9 | ········· |
| For they have a daughter named Rafu, | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| (pretty girl) | 3 | /˘· |
| She made the name for herself: “Gauze Veil,” | 9 | ·····˘/·· |
| For she feeds mulberries to silkworms, | 9 | ···/·˘·/· |
| She gets them by the south wall of the | 9 | ········· |
| town. | 1 | · |
| With green strings she makes the warp of her basket, | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| She makes the shoulder-straps of her basket | 10 | ···/˘···/˘ |
| from the boughs of Katsura, | 7 | ······· |
| And she piles her hair up on the left side of her head-piece. | 14 | ·············· |
| Her earrings are made of pearl, | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Her underskirt is of green pattern-silk, | 10 | ·/˘˘···/˘· |
| Her overskirt is the same silk dyed in purple, | 12 | ·/˘˘······/˘ |
| And when men going by look on Rafu | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| They set down their burdens, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| They stand and twirl their moustaches. | 8 | ·····/·˘ |
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.