Fish and the Shadow
The salmon-trout drifts in the stream,The soul of the salmon-trout floats over the streamLike a little wafer of light.
As light as the shadow of the fishthat falls through the water,She came into the large room by the stair,Yawning a little she came with the sleep still upon her.
“I am just from bed. The sleep is still in my eyes.“Come. I have had a long dream.”
And I: “That wood?And two springs have passed us.”
“Not so far, no, not so far now,There is a place--but no one else knows it--A field in a valley....Qu’ieu sui avinen,Ieu lo sai.”
She must speak of the timeOf Arnaut de Mareuil, I thought, “qu’ieu sui avinen.”
Light as the shadow of the fishThat falls through the pale green water.
Words in this poem
- wafer n.
- A thin cake made of flour and other ingredients. [OE. wafre, OF. waufre, qaufre, F. qaufre; of Teutonic origin; cf. LG. & D. wafel, G. waffel, Dan. vaffel, Sw. våffla; all akin to G. wabe a honeycomb, OHG. waba]
- arnaut n.
- An inhabitant of Albania and neighboring mountainous regions, specif. one serving as a soldier in the Turkish army.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Fish and the Shadow 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, Fish and the Shadow, in Lustra (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #55564, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/pound-lustra/fish-and-the-shadow.html, id L01333.
Form and metre
Fish and the Shadow is 20 lines in 7 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.2 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 20% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 AA- streamA · streamA · light
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 salmon-trout drifts in the stream, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The soul of the salmon-trout floats over the stream | 12 | ····/˘······ |
| Like a little wafer of light. | 8 | ··/˘/˘·· |
| As light as the shadow of the fish | 9 | ····/···· |
| that falls through the water, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| She came into the large room by the stair, | 10 | ·········· |
| Yawning a little she came with the sleep still upon her. | 14 | /˘·/˘········· |
| “I am just from bed. The sleep is still in my eyes. | 12 | ············ |
| “Come. I have had a long dream.” | 7 | ······· |
| And I: “That wood? | 4 | ···· |
| And two springs have passed us.” | 6 | ······ |
| “Not so far, no, not so far now, | 8 | ········ |
| There is a place--but no one else knows it-- | 10 | ·········· |
| A field in a valley.... | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Qu’ieu sui avinen, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Ieu lo sai.” | 3 | ··· |
| She must speak of the time | 6 | ······ |
| Of Arnaut de Mareuil, I thought, “qu’ieu sui avinen.” | 14 | ·········/˘··· |
| Light as the shadow of the fish | 8 | ···/···· |
| That falls through the pale green water. | 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.