Explanation
Ach, Mutter,This old, black dress,I have been embroideringFrench flowers on it.
Not by way of romance,Here is nothing of the ideal,Nein,Nein.
It would have been different,Liebchen,If I had imagined myself,In an orange gown,Drifting through space,Like a figure on the church-wall.
About this text
Explanation 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, Explanation, in Harmonium (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #78743, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/stevens-harmonium/explanation.html, id L01055.
Form and metre
Explanation is 14 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.0 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 7% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 romance · ideal · neinA · neinA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Ach, Mutter, | 3 | ·/˘ |
| This old, black dress, | 4 | ···· |
| I have been embroidering | 7 | ···˘/˘˘ |
| French flowers on it. | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| Not by way of romance, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Here is nothing of the ideal, | 8 | ··/˘··˘/ |
| Nein, | 1 | · |
| Nein. | 1 | · |
| It would have been different, | 7 | ····/˘˘ |
| Liebchen, | 2 | ·· |
| If I had imagined myself, | 9 | ···˘/˘˘·/ |
| In an orange gown, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Drifting through space, | 4 | /˘·· |
| Like a figure on the church-wall. | 8 | ··/˘···· |
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.