Song of Snow-White Heads
Our love was pureAs the snow on the mountains:White as a moonBetween the clouds--They’re telling meYour thoughts are doubleThat’s why I’ve comeTo break it off.To-day we’ll drinkA cup of wine.To-morrow we’ll partBeside the Canal:Walking aboutBeside the Canal,Where its branches divideEast and west.Alas and alas,And again alas.So must a girlCry when she’s married,If she find not a manOf single heart,Who will not leave herTill her hair is white.
About this text
Song of Snow-White Heads 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, Song of Snow-White Heads, in A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #42290, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/waley-chinese/song-of-snow-white-heads.html, id L18759.
Form and metre
Song of Snow-White Heads is 24 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 4.7 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 50% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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--CC---A-- pure · mountains · moon · clouds · me · double · come · off · drink · wine · partA · canalB · about · canalB · divide · west · alasC · alasC · girl · married · man · heartA · her · white
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Our love was pure | 5 | /˘··· |
| As the snow on the mountains: | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| White as a moon | 4 | ···· |
| Between the clouds-- | 4 | ···· |
| They’re telling me | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Your thoughts are double | 5 | ···/˘ |
| That’s why I’ve come | 4 | ···· |
| To break it off. | 4 | ···· |
| To-day we’ll drink | 4 | ···· |
| A cup of wine. | 4 | ···· |
| To-morrow we’ll part | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| Beside the Canal: | 5 | ·/·˘/ |
| Walking about | 4 | /˘·· |
| Beside the Canal, | 5 | ·/·˘/ |
| Where its branches divide | 6 | ··/˘˘/ |
| East and west. | 3 | ··· |
| Alas and alas, | 5 | ˘/·˘/ |
| And again alas. | 5 | ·˘/˘/ |
| So must a girl | 4 | ···· |
| Cry when she’s married, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| If she find not a man | 6 | ······ |
| Of single heart, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Who will not leave her | 5 | ····· |
| Till her hair is white. | 5 | ····· |
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.