Papyrus
Spring ...Too long ...Gongula ...
Empty are the ways,Empty are the ways of this landAnd the flowersBend over with heavy heads.They bend in vain.Empty are the ways of this landWhere IoneWalked once, and now does not walk
About this text
Papyrus 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, Papyrus, in Lustra (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #55564, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/pound-lustra/papyrus.html, id L01293.
Form and metre
Papyrus is 11 lines in 2 stanzas. 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 4.8 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 46% 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.
- 2 ABA--B-- waysA · landB · flowersA · heads · vain · landB · ione · walk
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Spring ... | 1 | · |
| Too long ... | 2 | ·· |
| Gongula ... | 3 | ··· |
| Empty are the ways, | 5 | /˘··· |
| Empty are the ways of this land | 8 | /˘······ |
| And the flowers | 4 | ··/˘ |
| Bend over with heavy heads. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| They bend in vain. | 4 | ···· |
| Empty are the ways of this land | 8 | /˘······ |
| Where Ione | 4 | ·˘/˘ |
| Walked once, and now does not walk | 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.