Heather
The black panther treads at my side,And above my fingersThere float the petal-like flames.
The milk-white girlsUnbend from the holly-trees,And their snow-white leopardWatches to follow our trace.
Words in this poem
- unbend v. t.
- To free from flexure; to make, or allow to become, straight; to loosen; as, to unbend a bow. [1st pref. un- + bend.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Heather 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, Heather, in Lustra (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #55564, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/pound-lustra/heather.html, id L01285.
Form and metre
Heather is 7 lines in 2 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%). 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.6 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The black panther treads at my side, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| And above my fingers | 6 | ····/˘ |
| There float the petal-like flames. | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| The milk-white girls | 4 | ···· |
| Unbend from the holly-trees, | 7 | ·/··/˘· |
| And their snow-white leopard | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Watches to follow our trace. | 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.