Reading the Book of Hills and Seas
In the month of June the grass grows highAnd round my cottage thick-leaved branches sway.There is not a bird but delights in the place where it rests:And I too--love my thatched cottage.I have done my ploughing:I have sown my seed.Again I have time to sit and read my books.In the narrow lane there are no deep ruts:Often my friends’ carriages turn back.In high spirits I pour out my spring wineAnd pluck the lettuce growing in my garden.A gentle rain comes stealing up from the eastAnd a sweet wind bears it company.My thoughts float idly over the story of King ChouMy eyes wander over the pictures of Hills and Seas.At a single glance I survey the whole Universe.He will never be happy, whom such pleasures fail to please!
About this text
Reading the Book of Hills and Seas 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, Reading the Book of Hills and Seas, in A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #42290, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/waley-chinese/reading-the-book-of-hills-and-seas.html, id L18787.
Form and metre
Reading the Book of Hills and Seas is 17 lines in a single stanza. 87% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.3 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 24% 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 ---------AA---B-B high · sway · rests · cottage · ploughing · seed · books · ruts · back · wineA · gardenA · east · company · chou · seasB · universe · pleaseB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| In the month of June the grass grows high | 9 | ········· |
| And round my cottage thick-leaved branches sway. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| There is not a bird but delights in the place where it rests: | 14 | ······˘/······ |
| And I too--love my thatched cottage. | 8 | ······/˘ |
| I have done my ploughing: | 6 | ····/˘ |
| I have sown my seed. | 5 | ····· |
| Again I have time to sit and read my books. | 11 | ˘/········· |
| In the narrow lane there are no deep ruts: | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| Often my friends’ carriages turn back. | 9 | /˘··/˘˘·· |
| In high spirits I pour out my spring wine | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| And pluck the lettuce growing in my garden. | 11 | ···/˘/˘··/˘ |
| A gentle rain comes stealing up from the east | 11 | ·/˘··/˘···· |
| And a sweet wind bears it company. | 9 | ······/˘˘ |
| My thoughts float idly over the story of King Chou | 13 | ···/˘···/˘··· |
| My eyes wander over the pictures of Hills and Seas. | 13 | ··/˘···/˘···· |
| At a single glance I survey the whole Universe. | 13 | ··/˘··˘/··/˘· |
| He will never be happy, whom such pleasures fail to please! | 14 | ··/˘·/˘··/˘··· |
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.