Day Dreams
When I was young I played with a soft brushAnd was passionately devoted to reading all sorts of books.In prose I made Chia I my standard:In verse I imitated Ssŭ-ma Hsiang-ju.But then the arrows began singing at the frontier.And a winged summons came flying to the City.Although arms were not my profession,I had once read Jang-Chū’s war-book.I shouted aloud and my cries rent the air:I felt as though Tung Wu were already annihilated.The scholar’s knife cuts best at its first useAnd my dreams hurried on to the completion of my plan.I wanted at a stroke to clear the Yang-tze and Hsiang,And at a glance to quell the Tibetans and Hu.When my task was done, I should not accept a barony,But refusing with a bow, retire to a cottage in the country.
Words in this poem
- passionately adv.
- In a passionate manner; with strong feeling; ardently.
- aloud adv.
- With a loud voice, or great noise; loudly; audibly. [Pref. a- + loud.]
- yang n.
- The cry of the wild goose; a honk. [Of imitative origin.]
- quell v. t.
- To take the life of; to kill. [OE. quellen to kill, AS. cwellan, causative of cwelan to die; akin to OHG. quellen to torment, Icel. kvelja. See Quail to cower.]
- barony n.
- The fee or domain of a baron; the lordship, dignity, or rank of a baron. [OF. baronie, F. baronnie, LL. baronia. See Baron.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Day Dreams 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, Day Dreams, in A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #42290, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/waley-chinese/day-dreams.html, id L18776.
Form and metre
Day Dreams is 16 lines in a single stanza. 82% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 12.2 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 12% 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 ---AB---B----A-- brush · books · standard · juA · frontierB · city · profession · book · airB · annihilated · use · plan · hsiang · huA · barony · country
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 |
|---|---|---|
| When I was young I played with a soft brush | 10 | ·········· |
| And was passionately devoted to reading all sorts of books. | 16 | ··/˘˘˘˘/˘·/˘···· |
| In prose I made Chia I my standard: | 10 | ····/˘··/˘ |
| In verse I imitated Ssŭ-ma Hsiang-ju. | 11 | ···/˘·˘···· |
| But then the arrows began singing at the frontier. | 13 | ···/˘˘//˘··˘/ |
| And a winged summons came flying to the City. | 12 | ···/˘·/˘··/˘ |
| Although arms were not my profession, | 9 | ······˘/˘ |
| I had once read Jang-Chū’s war-book. | 8 | ········ |
| I shouted aloud and my cries rent the air: | 11 | ·/˘˘/······ |
| I felt as though Tung Wu were already annihilated. | 15 | ·······˘/˘˘/˘·˘ |
| The scholar’s knife cuts best at its first use | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| And my dreams hurried on to the completion of my plan. | 14 | ···/˘···˘/˘··· |
| I wanted at a stroke to clear the Yang-tze and Hsiang, | 13 | ·/˘·········· |
| And at a glance to quell the Tibetans and Hu. | 12 | ·······˘/˘·· |
| When my task was done, I should not accept a barony, | 14 | ········˘/·/˘˘ |
| But refusing with a bow, retire to a cottage in the country. | 17 | ·˘/˘···˘/··/˘··/˘ |
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.