Pruning Trees
Trees growing--right in front of my window;The trees are high and the leaves grow thick.Sad alas! the distant mountain viewObscured by this, dimly shows between.One morning I took knife and axe;With my own hand I lopped the branches off.Ten thousand leaves fall about my head;A thousand hills came before my eyes.Suddenly, as when clouds or mists breakAnd straight through, the blue sky appears;Again, like the face of a friend one has lovedSeen at last after an age of parting.First there came a gentle wind blowing;One by one the birds flew back to the tree.To ease my mind I gazed to the South East;As my eyes wandered, my thoughts went far away.Of men there is none that has not some preference;Of things there is none but mixes good with ill.It was not that I did not love the tender branches;But better still,--to see the green hills!
Words in this poem
- dimly adv.
- In a dim or obscure manner; not brightly or clearly; with imperfect sight.
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Pruning Trees 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, Pruning Trees, in A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #42290, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/waley-chinese/pruning-trees.html, id L18854.
Form and metre
Pruning Trees is 20 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 77%). 88% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.8 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 15% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter, other poems in blank verse.
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 iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Trees growing--right in front of my window; | 10 | ·/˘·····/˘ |
| The trees are high and the leaves grow thick. | 9 | ········· |
| Sad alas! the distant mountain view | 9 | ·˘/·/˘/˘· |
| Obscured by this, dimly shows between. | 9 | ˘/··/˘··· |
| One morning I took knife and axe; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| With my own hand I lopped the branches off. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Ten thousand leaves fall about my head; | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| A thousand hills came before my eyes. | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| Suddenly, as when clouds or mists break | 9 | /˘˘······ |
| And straight through, the blue sky appears; | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Again, like the face of a friend one has loved | 11 | ˘/········· |
| Seen at last after an age of parting. | 10 | ········/˘ |
| First there came a gentle wind blowing; | 9 | ····/˘·/˘ |
| One by one the birds flew back to the tree. | 10 | ·········· |
| To ease my mind I gazed to the South East; | 10 | ·········· |
| As my eyes wandered, my thoughts went far away. | 11 | ···/˘····˘/ |
| Of men there is none that has not some preference; | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| Of things there is none but mixes good with ill. | 11 | ······/˘··· |
| It was not that I did not love the tender branches; | 13 | ·········/˘/˘ |
| But better still,--to see the green hills! | 9 | ·/˘······ |
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.