Stanzas for Music (From an Unfinished Drama.)
Thou art mine, thou hast given thy word;Close, close in my arms thou art clinging;Alone for my ear thou art singingA song which no stranger hath heard:But afar from me yet, like a bird,Thy soul, in some region unstirred,On its mystical circuit is winging.
Thou art mine, I have made thee mine own;Henceforth we are mingled forever:But in vain, all in vain, I endeavor—Though round thee my garlands are thrown,And thou yieldest thy lips and thy zone—To master the spell that aloneMy hold on thy being can sever.
Thou art mine, thou hast come unto me!But thy soul, when I strive to be near it—The innermost fold of thy spirit—Is as far from my grasp, is as free,As the stars from the mountain-tops be,As the pearl, in the depths of the sea,From the portionless king that would wear it.
Words in this poem
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- afar adv.
- At, to, or from a great distance; far away; -- often used with from preceding, or off following; as, he was seen from afar; I saw him afar off. [Pref. a-.(for on or of) + far.]
- henceforth adv.
- From this time forward; henceforward.
- portionless a.
- Having no portion.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Stanzas for Music (From an Unfinished Drama.) is in the public domain. This text is taken from The poetical works of Edmund Clarence Stedman, Project Gutenberg ebook #70763; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edmund Clarence Stedman, Stanzas for Music (From an Unfinished Drama.), in The Poetical Works of Edmund Clarence Stedman (1860–1897), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #70763, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/stedman-poems/stanzas-for-music-from-an-unfinished-drama.html, id L10741.
Form and metre
Stanzas for Music (From an Unfinished Drama.) is 21 lines in 3 stanzas of 7 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABBAAAB. The metre is anapaestic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.1 syllables. 8 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 10% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in anapaestic 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.
- 1 ABBAAAB wordA · clingingB · singingB · heardA · birdA · unstirredA · wingingB
- 2 ABBAAAB ownA · foreverB · endeavorB · thrownA · zoneA · aloneA · severB
- 3 ABBAAAB meA · itB · spiritB · freeA · beA · seaA · itB
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 anapaestic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Thou art mine, thou hast given thy word; | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| Close, close in my arms thou art clinging; | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Alone for my ear thou art singing | 9 | ˘/·····/˘ |
| A song which no stranger hath heard: | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| But afar from me yet, like a bird, | 9 | ·˘/······ |
| Thy soul, in some region unstirred, | 9 | ····/˘··˘ |
| On its mystical circuit is winging. | 10 | ··/˘˘/˘·/˘ |
| Thou art mine, I have made thee mine own; | 9 | ········· |
| Henceforth we are mingled forever: | 10 | //··/˘˘˘/˘ |
| But in vain, all in vain, I endeavor— | 10 | ·······˘/˘ |
| Though round thee my garlands are thrown, | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| And thou yieldest thy lips and thy zone— | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| To master the spell that alone | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| My hold on thy being can sever. | 9 | ····/˘·/˘ |
| Thou art mine, thou hast come unto me! | 9 | ········· |
| But thy soul, when I strive to be near it— | 10 | ·········· |
| The innermost fold of thy spirit— | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| Is as far from my grasp, is as free, | 9 | ········· |
| As the stars from the mountain-tops be, | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| As the pearl, in the depths of the sea, | 9 | ········· |
| From the portionless king that would wear it. | 10 | ··/˘˘····· |
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.