Ref
O'er cliff and ocean the white dawn appearethIt passeth vigil and the shadows cleareth.
They be careless of the gates, delaying,Whom the ambush glides to hinder,Whom I warn and cry to, praying,"ARISE."
O'er cliff and ocean the white dawn appearethIt passeth vigil and the shadows cleareth.
Forth from out Arcturus, North Wind blowethThe stars of heaven sheathe their gloryAnd sun-driven forth-goethSettentrion.
Words in this poem
- vigil n.
- Abstinence from sleep, whether at a time when sleep is customary or not; the act of keeping awake, or the state of being awake, or the state of being awake; sleeplessness; wakefulness; watch. [OE. vigile, L. vigilia, from vigil awake, watchful, probably akin to E. wake: cf. F. vigile. See Wake, v. i., and cf. Reveille, Surveillance, Vedette, Vegetable]
- arcturus n.
- A fixed star of the first magnitude in the constellation Boötes. [L. Arcturus, Gr. Arctic.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Ref 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, Ref, in Personae (1909), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #41162, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/pound-personae/ref.html, id L01221.
Form and metre
Ref is 12 lines in 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.3 syllables. 9 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 42% 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 AA appearethA · clearethA
- 2 A-A- delayingA · hinder · prayingA · arise
- 3 AA appearethA · clearethA
- 4 A-A- blowethA · glory · goethA · settentrion
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 |
|---|---|---|
| O'er cliff and ocean the white dawn appeareth | 11 | ···/˘···˘/˘ |
| It passeth vigil and the shadows cleareth. | 11 | ·/˘/˘··/·/˘ |
| They be careless of the gates, delaying, | 10 | ··/˘···˘/˘ |
| Whom the ambush glides to hinder, | 8 | ··/···/˘ |
| Whom I warn and cry to, praying, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| "ARISE." | 2 | ˘/ |
| O'er cliff and ocean the white dawn appeareth | 11 | ···/˘···˘/˘ |
| It passeth vigil and the shadows cleareth. | 11 | ·/˘/˘··/·/˘ |
| Forth from out Arcturus, North Wind bloweth | 10 | ····/˘··/˘ |
| The stars of heaven sheathe their glory | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| And sun-driven forth-goeth | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| Settentrion. | 3 | ··· |
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.