Camaraderie
Sometimes I feel thy cheek against my faceClose-pressing, soft as is the South's first breathThat all the subtle earth-things summonethTo spring in wood-land and in meadow space.
Yea sometimes in a bustling man-filled placeMe seemeth some-wise thy hair wanderethAcross mine eyes, as mist that hallowethThe air awhile and giveth all things grace.
Or on still evenings when the rain falls closeThere comes a tremor in the drops, and fastMy pulses run, knowing thy thought hath passedThat beareth thee as doth the wind a rose.
Words in this poem
- bustling a.
- Agitated; noisy; tumultuous; characterized by confused activity; as, a bustling crowd.
- awhile adv.
- For a while; for some time; for a short time. [Adj. a + while time, interval.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Camaraderie is in the public domain. This text is taken from Personae, Project Gutenberg ebook #41162; 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, Camaraderie, in Personae (1909), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #41162, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/pound-personae/camaraderie.html, id L01205.
Form and metre
Camaraderie is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABBA, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 75% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ABBA faceA · breathB · summonethB · spaceA
- 2 A--A placeA · wandereth · halloweth · graceA
- 3 ABBA closeA · fastB · passedB · roseA
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Sometimes I feel thy cheek against my face | 10 | ˘/········ |
| Close-pressing, soft as is the South's first breath | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| That all the subtle earth-things summoneth | 10 | ···/˘··/˘˘ |
| To spring in wood-land and in meadow space. | 10 | ·······/·· |
| Yea sometimes in a bustling man-filled place | 10 | ·/···/˘··· |
| Me seemeth some-wise thy hair wandereth | 10 | ·/˘····/˘˘ |
| Across mine eyes, as mist that halloweth | 10 | ˘/·····/˘˘ |
| The air awhile and giveth all things grace. | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| Or on still evenings when the rain falls close | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| There comes a tremor in the drops, and fast | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| My pulses run, knowing thy thought hath passed | 10 | ·/˘·/˘···· |
| That beareth thee as doth the wind a rose. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
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.