On the Way to Hangchow: Anchored on the River at Night
Little sleeping and much grieving,--the travellerRises at midnight and looks back towards home.The sands are bright with moonlight that joins the shores;The sail is white with dew that has covered the boat.Nearing the sea, the river grows broader and broader:Approaching autumn,--the nights longer and longer.Thirty times we have slept amid mists and waves,And still we have not reached Hang-chow!
Words in this poem
- amid prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
On the Way to Hangchow: Anchored on the River at Night 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 Way to Hangchow: Anchored on the River at Night, in A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #42290, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/waley-chinese/on-the-way-to-hangchow-anchored-on-the-river-at-night.html, id L18856.
Form and metre
On the Way to Hangchow: Anchored on the River at Night is 8 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is dactylic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 71%). 78% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 11.2 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in dactylic 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.
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 dactylic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Little sleeping and much grieving,--the traveller | 12 | /˘/˘··/˘·/˘˘ |
| Rises at midnight and looks back towards home. | 11 | /˘·/······· |
| The sands are bright with moonlight that joins the shores; | 11 | ·····/····· |
| The sail is white with dew that has covered the boat. | 12 | ········/˘·· |
| Nearing the sea, the river grows broader and broader: | 13 | /˘···/˘·/˘·/˘ |
| Approaching autumn,--the nights longer and longer. | 12 | ˘/˘/˘··/˘·/˘ |
| Thirty times we have slept amid mists and waves, | 11 | /˘····˘/··· |
| And still we have not reached Hang-chow! | 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.