The Song
That day, in the slipping of torsos and straining flankson the bloodied ooze of fields plowed by the iron,And the smoke bluish near earth and bronze in the sunshinefloating like cotton-down,And the harsh and terrible screaming,And that strange vibration at the roots of us...Desire, fierce, like a song...And we heard(Do you remember?)All the Red Cross bands on Fifth avenueAnd bugles in little home townsAnd children's harmonicas bleating
Words in this poem
- sunshine n.
- The light of the sun, or the place where it shines; the direct rays of the sun, the place where they fall, or the warmth and light which they give.
- screaming a.
- Uttering screams; shrieking.
- avenue n.
- A way or opening for entrance into a place; a passage by which a place may by reached; a way of approach or of exit. [F. avenue, fr. avenir to come to, L. advenire. See Advene.]
- bleating a.
- Crying as a sheep does.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Song 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, in The Ghetto, and Other Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #4332, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/ridge-ghetto/the-song.html, id L20894.
Form and metre
The Song is 12 lines in a single stanza.
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 -AAAB-B----- flanks · ironA · sunshineA · downA · screamingB · us · songB · heard · remember · avenue · towns · bleating
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 day, in the slipping of torsos and straining flanks | 13 | ····/˘·/··/˘· |
| on the bloodied ooze of fields plowed by the iron, | 12 | ··/˘······/˘ |
| And the smoke bluish near earth and bronze in the sunshine | 13 | ···/˘······/· |
| floating like cotton-down, | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| And the harsh and terrible screaming, | 9 | ····/˘˘/˘ |
| And that strange vibration at the roots of us... | 11 | ···˘/˘····· |
| Desire, fierce, like a song... | 7 | ˘/˘···· |
| And we heard | 3 | ··· |
| (Do you remember?) | 5 | ··˘/˘ |
| All the Red Cross bands on Fifth avenue | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And bugles in little home towns | 8 | ·/˘·/˘·· |
| And children's harmonicas bleating | 9 | ·/˘˘/˘˘/˘ |
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.