The Song of Iron II
Charge the blast furnace, workman...Open the valves--Drive the fires high...(Night is above the gates).
How golden-hot the ore isFrom the cupola spurting,Tossing the flaming petalsOver the silt and furnace ash--Blown leaves, devastating,Falling about the world...
Out of the furnace mouth--Out of the giant mouth--The raging, turgid, mouth--Fall fiery blossomsGold with the gold of buttercupsIn a field at sunset,Or huskier gold of dandelions,Warmed in sun-leavings,Or changing to the paler hueAt the creamy hearts of primroses.
Charge the converter, workman--Tired from the long night?But the earth shall suck up darkness--The earth that holds so much...And out of these molten flowers,Shall shape the heavy fruit...
Then open the valves--Drive the fires high,Your blossoms nurturing.(Day is at the gatesAnd a young wind...)
Put by your rod, comrade,And look with me, shading your eyes...Do you not see--Through the lucent hazeOut of the converter rising--In the spirals of fireSmiting and blinding,A shadowy shapeWhite as a flame of sacrifice,Like a lily swaying?
Words in this poem
- cupola n.
- A roof having a rounded form, hemispherical or nearly so; also, a celing having the same form. When on a large scale it is usually called dome. [It. cupola, LL. cupula, cuppula (cf. L. cupula little tub). fr. cupa, cuppa, cup; cf. L. cupa tub. So called on account of its resemblance to a cup turned over.]
- silt n.
- Mud or fine earth deposited from running or standing water. [OE. silte gravel, fr. silen to drain, E. sile; probably of Scand. origin; cf. Sw. sila, prob. akin to AS. seón to filter, sigan to fall, sink, cause to sink, G.]
- creamy a.
- Full of, or containing, cream; resembling cream, in nature, appearance, or taste; creamlike; unctuous.
- converter n.
- One who converts; one who makes converts.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- lucent a.
- Shining; bright; resplendent. [L. lucens, p. pr. of lucere to shine, fr. lux, lucis, light.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Song of Iron II is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Ghetto, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #4332; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Lola Ridge, The Song of Iron II, in The Ghetto, and Other Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #4332, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/ridge-ghetto/the-song-of-iron-ii.html, id L20882.
Form and metre
The Song of Iron II is 41 lines in 6 stanzas. The metre is trochaic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 78%).
See other poems in trochaic trimeter.
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.
- 3 AAA------- mouthA · mouthA · mouthA · blossoms · buttercups · sunset · dandelions · leavings · hue · primroses
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 trochaic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Charge the blast furnace, workman... | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Open the valves-- | 4 | /˘·· |
| Drive the fires high... | 5 | ··/˘· |
| (Night is above the gates). | 6 | ······ |
| How golden-hot the ore is | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| From the cupola spurting, | 7 | ··˘/˘/˘ |
| Tossing the flaming petals | 7 | /˘·/˘/˘ |
| Over the silt and furnace ash-- | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Blown leaves, devastating, | 6 | ··/˘·˘ |
| Falling about the world... | 6 | /˘···· |
| Out of the furnace mouth-- | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Out of the giant mouth-- | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The raging, turgid, mouth-- | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Fall fiery blossoms | 6 | ·/˘˘/˘ |
| Gold with the gold of buttercups | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| In a field at sunset, | 6 | ····/· |
| Or huskier gold of dandelions, | 9 | ·····/˘·˘ |
| Warmed in sun-leavings, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Or changing to the paler hue | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| At the creamy hearts of primroses. | 9 | ··/˘··/·˘ |
| Charge the converter, workman-- | 7 | ··˘/˘/˘ |
| Tired from the long night? | 6 | /˘···· |
| But the earth shall suck up darkness-- | 8 | ······/˘ |
| The earth that holds so much... | 6 | ······ |
| And out of these molten flowers, | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Shall shape the heavy fruit... | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Then open the valves-- | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| Drive the fires high, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Your blossoms nurturing. | 6 | ·/˘/˘˘ |
| (Day is at the gates | 5 | ····· |
| And a young wind...) | 4 | ···· |
| Put by your rod, comrade, | 6 | ····/· |
| And look with me, shading your eyes... | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Do you not see-- | 4 | ···· |
| Through the lucent haze | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Out of the converter rising-- | 8 | ···˘/˘/˘ |
| In the spirals of fire | 7 | ··/˘·/˘ |
| Smiting and blinding, | 5 | /˘·/˘ |
| A shadowy shape | 5 | ·/˘˘· |
| White as a flame of sacrifice, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Like a lily swaying? | 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.