On the Birth of His Son
Families, when a child is bornWant it to be intelligent.I, through intelligence,Having wrecked my whole life,Only hope the baby will proveIgnorant and stupid.Then he will crown a tranquil lifeBy becoming a Cabinet Minister.
About this text
On the Birth of His Son 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, On the Birth of His Son, in A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #42290, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/waley-chinese/on-the-birth-of-his-son.html, id L18815.
Form and metre
On the Birth of His Son is 8 lines in a single stanza. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 78%). 83% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.6 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 38% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic tetrameter.
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- born · intelligent · intelligence · lifeA · prove · stupid · lifeA · minister
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Families, when a child is born | 8 | /˘˘····· |
| Want it to be intelligent. | 8 | ····˘/˘˘ |
| I, through intelligence, | 6 | ··˘/˘˘ |
| Having wrecked my whole life, | 6 | /˘···· |
| Only hope the baby will prove | 8 | /˘··/˘·· |
| Ignorant and stupid. | 6 | /˘˘·/˘ |
| Then he will crown a tranquil life | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| By becoming a Cabinet Minister. | 11 | ·˘/˘·/˘˘/˘˘ |
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.