For the Marriage in Cana of Galilee
Dark eyed,O woman of my dreams,Ivory sandaled,There is none like thee among the dancers,None with swift feet.
I have not found thee in the tents,In the broken darkness.I have not found thee at the well-headAmong the women with pitchers.
Thine arms are as a young sapling under the bark;Thy face as a river with lights.
White as an almond are thy shoulders;As new almonds stripped from the husk.
They guard thee not with eunuchs;Not with bars of copper.
Gilt turquoise and silver are in the place of thy rest.A brown robe, with threads of gold woven in patterns,hast thou gathered about thee,O Nathat-Ikanaie, “Tree-at-the-river.”
As a rillet among the sedge are thy hands upon me;Thy fingers a frosted stream.
Thy maidens are white like pebbles;Their music about thee!
There is none like thee among the dancers;None with swift feet.
Words in this poem
- sandaled a.
- Wearing sandals.
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- rillet n.
- A little rill. Burton.
- frosted a.
- Covered with hoarfrost or anything resembling hoarfrost; ornamented with frosting; also, frost-bitten; as, a frosted cake; frosted glass.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
For the Marriage in Cana of Galilee 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, For the Marriage in Cana of Galilee, in Lustra (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #55564, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/pound-lustra/for-the-marriage-in-cana-of-galilee.html, id L01258.
Form and metre
For the Marriage in Cana of Galilee is 25 lines in 9 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. 88% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 11 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Dark eyed, | 2 | ·· |
| O woman of my dreams, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Ivory sandaled, | 5 | /˘˘/˘ |
| There is none like thee among the dancers, | 10 | ········/˘ |
| None with swift feet. | 4 | ···· |
| I have not found thee in the tents, | 8 | ········ |
| In the broken darkness. | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| I have not found thee at the well-head | 9 | ········· |
| Among the women with pitchers. | 8 | ···/˘·/˘ |
| Thine arms are as a young sapling under the bark; | 12 | ······/˘···· |
| Thy face as a river with lights. | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| White as an almond are thy shoulders; | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| As new almonds stripped from the husk. | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| They guard thee not with eunuchs; | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Not with bars of copper. | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Gilt turquoise and silver are in the place of thy rest. | 13 | ·/˘·/˘······· |
| A brown robe, with threads of gold woven in patterns, | 12 | ·······/˘·/˘ |
| hast thou gathered about thee, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| O Nathat-Ikanaie, “Tree-at-the-river.” | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| As a rillet among the sedge are thy hands upon me; | 14 | ··/˘·········· |
| Thy fingers a frosted stream. | 7 | ·/˘·/˘· |
| Thy maidens are white like pebbles; | 8 | ·/˘···/˘ |
| Their music about thee! | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| There is none like thee among the dancers; | 10 | ········/˘ |
| None with swift feet. | 4 | ···· |
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.