Search
I have heard a wee wind searchingThrough still forests for me;I have seen a wee wind searchingO'er still sea.
Through woodlands dim have I taken my way;And o'er silent waters night and dayHave I sought the wee wind.
About this text
Search 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, Search, in Personae (1909), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #41162, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/pound-personae/search.html, id L01213.
Form and metre
Search is 7 lines in 2 stanzas. The lines average 7.1 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
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 ABAB searchingA · meB · searchingA · seaB
- 2 AA- wayA · dayA · wind
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I have heard a wee wind searching | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Through still forests for me; | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| I have seen a wee wind searching | 8 | ······/˘ |
| O'er still sea. | 3 | ··· |
| Through woodlands dim have I taken my way; | 10 | ·/····/˘·· |
| And o'er silent waters night and day | 9 | ··/˘/˘··· |
| Have I sought the wee wind. | 6 | ······ |
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.