Being Visited by a Friend During Illness
I have been ill so long that I do not count the days;At the southern window, evening--and again evening.Sadly chirping in the grasses under my eavesThe winter sparrows morning and evening sing.By an effort I rise and lean heavily on my bed;Tottering I step towards the door of the courtyard.By chance I meet a friend who is coming to see me;Just as if I had gone specially to meet him.They took my couch and placed it in the setting sun;They spread my rug and I leaned on the balcony-pillar.Tranquil talk was better than any medicine;Gradually the feelings came back to my numbed heart.
Words in this poem
- sadly adv.
- Wearily; heavily; firmly.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Being Visited by a Friend During Illness is in the public domain. This text is taken from A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #42290, the Arthur Waley translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Various, Being Visited by a Friend During Illness, in A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #42290, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/waley-chinese/being-visited-by-a-friend-during-illness.html, id L18855.
Form and metre
Being Visited by a Friend During Illness is 12 lines in a single stanza. 75% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 12.7 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 8% 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.
- 1 -A-A----B-B- days · eveningA · eaves · singA · bed · courtyard · me · him · sunB · pillar · medicineB · heart
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I have been ill so long that I do not count the days; | 13 | ············· |
| At the southern window, evening--and again evening. | 13 | ··/˘/˘/˘·˘//˘ |
| Sadly chirping in the grasses under my eaves | 12 | /˘/˘··/˘···· |
| The winter sparrows morning and evening sing. | 11 | ·/˘/˘/˘·/˘· |
| By an effort I rise and lean heavily on my bed; | 13 | ··/˘····/˘··· |
| Tottering I step towards the door of the courtyard. | 13 | /˘˘········/· |
| By chance I meet a friend who is coming to see me; | 13 | ········/˘··· |
| Just as if I had gone specially to meet him. | 12 | ······/˘˘··· |
| They took my couch and placed it in the setting sun; | 13 | ······˘···/˘· |
| They spread my rug and I leaned on the balcony-pillar. | 14 | ·········/˘˘/˘ |
| Tranquil talk was better than any medicine; | 12 | /˘··/˘·/˘/˘˘ |
| Gradually the feelings came back to my numbed heart. | 13 | /˘˘˘·/˘······ |
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.