The Gipsy
That was the top of the walk, when he said:“Have you seen any others, any of our lot,With apes or bears?”--A brown upstanding fellowNot like the half-castes,up on the wet road near Clermont.The wind came, and the rain,And mist clotted about the trees in the valley,And I’d the long ways behind me,gray Arles and Biaucaire,And he said, “Have you seen any of our lot?”
I’d seen a lot of his lot ...ever since Rhodez,Coming down from the fairof St. John,With caravans, but never an ape or a bear.
Words in this poem
- arles n.
- An earnest; earnest money; money paid to bind a bargain. [Cf. F. arrhes, Scot. airles. Cf. Earles penny.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Gipsy 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, The Gipsy, in Lustra (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #55564, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/pound-lustra/the-gipsy.html, id L01304.
Form and metre
The Gipsy is 16 lines in 2 stanzas. 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.7 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 12% 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 -A--------A said · lotA · bears · fellow · castes · clermont · rain · valley · me · biaucaire · lotA
- 2 --A-A lot · rhodez · fairA · john · bearA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| That was the top of the walk, when he said: | 10 | ·········· |
| “Have you seen any others, any of our lot, | 13 | ···/˘/˘/˘·/˘· |
| With apes or bears?” | 4 | ···· |
| --A brown upstanding fellow | 7 | ··/·˘/˘ |
| Not like the half-castes, | 5 | ····· |
| up on the wet road near Clermont. | 8 | ······/· |
| The wind came, and the rain, | 6 | ······ |
| And mist clotted about the trees in the valley, | 12 | ··/˘······/˘ |
| And I’d the long ways behind me, | 8 | ········ |
| gray Arles and Biaucaire, | 5 | ····· |
| And he said, “Have you seen any of our lot?” | 12 | ······/˘·/˘· |
| I’d seen a lot of his lot ... | 7 | ······· |
| ever since Rhodez, | 5 | /˘··· |
| Coming down from the fair | 6 | /˘···· |
| of St. John, | 3 | ··· |
| With caravans, but never an ape or a bear. | 12 | ·/˘··/˘····· |
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.