The Song-Throe
By thine own tears thy song must tears beget,O Singer! Magic mirror thou hast noneExcept thy manifest heart; and save thine ownAnguish or ardour, else no amulet.Cisterned in Pride, verse is the feathery jetOf soulless air-flung fountains; nay, more dryThan the Dead Sea for throats that thirst and sigh,That song o'er which no singer's lids grew wet.
The Song-god--He the Sun-god--is no slaveOf thine: thy Hunter he, who for thy soulFledges his shaft: to no august controlOf thy skilled hand his quivered store he gave:But if thy lips' loud cry leap to his smart,The inspir'd recoil shall pierce thy brother's heart.
Words in this poem
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- ardour n.
- Heat, in a literal sense; as, the ardor of the sun's rays. [L. ardor, fr. ardere to burn: cf. OF. ardor, ardur, F. ardeur.]
- soulless a.
- Being without a soul, or without greatness or nobleness of mind; mean; spiritless.
- quivered a.
- Furnished with, or carrying, a quiver.
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Song-Throe is in the public domain. This text is taken from The House of Life, Project Gutenberg ebook #3692; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Dante Gabriel Rossetti, The Song-Throe, in The House of Life (1881), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3692, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rossetti-house-of-life/the-song-throe.html, id L20978.
Form and metre
The Song-Throe is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%).
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 A--AABBA begetA · none · own · amuletA · jetA · dryB · sighB · wetA
- 2 ABBACC slaveA · soulB · controlB · gaveA · smartC · heartC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| By thine own tears thy song must tears beget, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| O Singer! Magic mirror thou hast none | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| Except thy manifest heart; and save thine own | 11 | ···/˘······ |
| Anguish or ardour, else no amulet. | 10 | /˘·/˘··/˘˘ |
| Cisterned in Pride, verse is the feathery jet | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| Of soulless air-flung fountains; nay, more dry | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Than the Dead Sea for throats that thirst and sigh, | 10 | ·········· |
| That song o'er which no singer's lids grew wet. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| The Song-god--He the Sun-god--is no slave | 10 | ·········· |
| Of thine: thy Hunter he, who for thy soul | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Fledges his shaft: to no august control | 10 | /˘····/˘˘/ |
| Of thy skilled hand his quivered store he gave: | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| But if thy lips' loud cry leap to his smart, | 10 | ·········· |
| The inspir'd recoil shall pierce thy brother's heart. | 11 | ·˘/˘/···/˘· |
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.