Banal Sojourn
Two wooden tubs of blue hydrangeas stand at the foot of the stonesteps.The sky is a blue gum streaked with rose. The trees are black.The grackles crack their throats of bone in the smooth air.Moisture and heat have swollen the garden into a slum of bloom.Pardie! Summer is like a fat beast, sleepy in mildew,Our old bane, green and bloated, serene, who cries,“That bliss of stars, that princox of evening heaven!” reminding ofseasons,When radiance came running down, slim through the bareness.And so it is one damns that green shade at the bottom of the land.For who can care at the wigs despoiling the Satan ear?And who does not seek the sky unfuzzed, soaring to the princox?One has a malady, here, a malady. One feels a malady.
The cock crowsBut no queen rises.
The hair of my blondeIs dazzling,As the spittle of cowsThreading the wind.
Words in this poem
- pardie adv.
- Certainly; surely; truly; verily; -- originally an oath. [F. pardi, for par Dieu by God.]
- mildew n.
- A growth of minute powdery or webby fungi, whitish or of different colors, found on various diseased or decaying substances. [AS. meledeáw; akin to OHG. militou, G. mehlthau, mehltau; prob. orig. meaning, honeydew; cf. Goth. milip honey. See Mellifluous, and Dew.]
- bane v. t.
- To be the bane of; to ruin. Fuller.
- princox n.
- A coxcomb; a pert boy. [Prim + cock.]
- bareness n.
- The state of being bare.
- malady n.
- Any disease of the human body; a distemper, disorder, or indisposition, proceeding from impaired, defective, or morbid organic functions; especially, a lingering or deep-seated disorder. [F. maladie, fr. malade ill, sick, OF. also, malabde, fr. L. male habitus, i. e., ill-kept, not in good condition. See Malice, and Habit.]
- blonde a.
- Of a fair color; light-colored; as, blond hair; a blond complexion. [F., fair, light, of uncertain origin; cf. AS. blonden-feax gray-haired, old, prop. blended-haired, as a mixture of white and brown or black. See Blend, v. t.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Banal Sojourn is in the public domain. This text is taken from Harmonium, Project Gutenberg ebook #78743; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Wallace Stevens, Banal Sojourn, in Harmonium (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #78743, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/stevens-harmonium/banal-sojourn.html, id L01045.
Form and metre
Banal Sojourn is 20 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter. 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter, other poems in blank verse.
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.
- 2 AA crowsA · risesA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Two wooden tubs of blue hydrangeas stand at the foot of the stone | 16 | ·/˘············· |
| steps. | 1 | · |
| The sky is a blue gum streaked with rose. The trees are black. | 13 | ············· |
| The grackles crack their throats of bone in the smooth air. | 12 | ·/˘········· |
| Moisture and heat have swollen the garden into a slum of bloom. | 16 | /˘···/˘·/˘······ |
| Pardie! Summer is like a fat beast, sleepy in mildew, | 14 | ··/˘·····/˘·/· |
| Our old bane, green and bloated, serene, who cries, | 11 | /····/˘˘/·· |
| “That bliss of stars, that princox of evening heaven!” reminding of | 15 | ········/˘/˘/˘· |
| seasons, | 2 | /˘ |
| When radiance came running down, slim through the bareness. | 12 | ·/˘·/˘····/˘ |
| And so it is one damns that green shade at the bottom of the land. | 16 | ···········/˘··· |
| For who can care at the wigs despoiling the Satan ear? | 14 | ···········/˘· |
| And who does not seek the sky unfuzzed, soaring to the princox? | 15 | ·········/˘···· |
| One has a malady, here, a malady. One feels a malady. | 14 | ···/˘··/˘···/˘ |
| The cock crows | 3 | ··· |
| But no queen rises. | 5 | ···/˘ |
| The hair of my blonde | 5 | ····· |
| Is dazzling, | 4 | ·/˘˘ |
| As the spittle of cows | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| Threading the wind. | 4 | /˘·· |
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.