South of the Great Sea
My love is livingTo the south of the Great Sea.What shall I send to greet him?Two pearls and a comb of tortoise-shell:I’ll send them to him packed in a box of jade.They tell me he is not true:They tell me he dashed my box to the ground,Dashed it to the ground and burnt itAnd scattered its ashes to the wind.From this day to the ends of timeI must never think of him,Never again think of him.The cocks are crowing,And the dogs are barking--My brother and his wife will soon know.The autumn wind is blowing;The morning wind is sighing.In a moment the sun will rise in the eastAnd then it too will know.
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
South of the Great Sea 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, South of the Great Sea, in A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #42290, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/waley-chinese/south-of-the-great-sea.html, id L18751.
Form and metre
South of the Great Sea is 19 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.7 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 21% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic 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-------AAB-CB--C living · sea · himA · shell · jade · true · ground · it · wind · time · himA · himA · crowingB · barking · knowC · blowingB · sighing · east · knowC
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| My love is living | 5 | ···/˘ |
| To the south of the Great Sea. | 7 | ······· |
| What shall I send to greet him? | 7 | ······· |
| Two pearls and a comb of tortoise-shell: | 9 | ······/˘· |
| I’ll send them to him packed in a box of jade. | 11 | ··········· |
| They tell me he is not true: | 7 | ······· |
| They tell me he dashed my box to the ground, | 10 | ·········· |
| Dashed it to the ground and burnt it | 8 | ········ |
| And scattered its ashes to the wind. | 9 | ·/˘·/˘··· |
| From this day to the ends of time | 8 | ········ |
| I must never think of him, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Never again think of him. | 7 | /˘˘/··· |
| The cocks are crowing, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| And the dogs are barking-- | 6 | ····/˘ |
| My brother and his wife will soon know. | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| The autumn wind is blowing; | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| The morning wind is sighing. | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| In a moment the sun will rise in the east | 11 | ··/˘······· |
| And then it too will know. | 6 | ······ |
Notes from the edition 1
Arthur Waley's notes to A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems (1918; Project Gutenberg #42290).
- Line 15 I.e., about her engagement being broken off.
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.