Liu Ch’e
The rustling of the silk is discontinued,Dust drifts over the court-yard,There is no sound of foot-fall, and the leavesScurry into heaps and lie still,And she the rejoicer of the heart is beneath them:
O fan of white silk,clear as frost on the grass-blade,You also are laid aside.
Words in this poem
- scurry v. i.
- To hasten away or along; to move rapidly; to hurry; as, the rabbit scurried away. [Cf. Scur, Skirr.]
- rejoicer n.
- One who rejoices.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Liu Ch’e 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, Liu Ch’e, in Lustra (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #55564, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/pound-lustra/liu-ch-e.html, id L01284.
Form and metre
Liu Ch’e is 8 lines in 2 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 73%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.5 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic 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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The rustling of the silk is discontinued, | 11 | ·/˘····˘˘/˘ |
| Dust drifts over the court-yard, | 7 | ······· |
| There is no sound of foot-fall, and the leaves | 10 | ·········· |
| Scurry into heaps and lie still, | 8 | /˘······ |
| And she the rejoicer of the heart is beneath them: | 13 | ···˘/˘······· |
| O fan of white silk, | 5 | ····· |
| clear as frost on the grass-blade, | 7 | ······· |
| You also are laid aside. | 7 | ·/˘··˘/ |
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.