The Chancellor’s Gravel-Drive (A Satire on the Maltreatment of Subordinates)
A Government-bull yoked to a Government-cart!Moored by the bank of Ch’an River, a barge loaded with gravel.A single load of gravel,How many pounds it weighs!Carrying at dawn, carrying at dusk, what is it all for?They are carrying it towards the Five Gates,To the West of the Main Road.Under the shadow of green laurels they are making a gravel-drive.For yesterday arrove, newly appointed,The Assistant Chancellor of the Realm,And was terribly afraid that the wet and mudWould dirty his horse’s hoofs.The Chancellor’s horse’s hoofsStepped on the gravel and remained perfectly clean;But the bull employed in dragging the cartWas almost sweating blood.The Assistant Chancellor’s businessIs to “save men, govern the countryAnd harmonize Yin and Yang.”Whether the bull’s neck is soreNeed not trouble him at all.
Words in this poem
- yang n.
- The cry of the wild goose; a honk. [Of imitative origin.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Chancellor’s Gravel-Drive (A Satire on the Maltreatment of Subordinates) 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, The Chancellor’s Gravel-Drive (A Satire on the Maltreatment of Subordinates), in A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #42290, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/waley-chinese/the-chancellor-s-gravel-drive-a-satire-on-the-maltreatment-o.html, id L18832.
Form and metre
The Chancellor’s Gravel-Drive (A Satire on the Maltreatment of Subordinates) is 21 lines in a single stanza. 78% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.7 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 29% 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 ABB-C-D-D-EFF-AE---C- cartA · gravelB · gravelB · weighs · forC · gates · roadD · drive · appointedD · realm · mudE · hoofsF · hoofsF · clean · cartA · bloodE · business · country · yang · soreC · all
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A Government-bull yoked to a Government-cart! | 12 | ·/˘˘····/˘˘· |
| Moored by the bank of Ch’an River, a barge loaded with gravel. | 15 | ······/˘··/˘·/˘ |
| A single load of gravel, | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| How many pounds it weighs! | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Carrying at dawn, carrying at dusk, what is it all for? | 15 | /˘˘··/˘˘······· |
| They are carrying it towards the Five Gates, | 11 | ··/˘˘······ |
| To the West of the Main Road. | 7 | ······· |
| Under the shadow of green laurels they are making a gravel-drive. | 17 | ···/···/˘··/˘·/˘· |
| For yesterday arrove, newly appointed, | 11 | ·/˘···/˘˘/˘ |
| The Assistant Chancellor of the Realm, | 10 | ·˘/˘/˘˘··· |
| And was terribly afraid that the wet and mud | 12 | ··/˘˘˘/····· |
| Would dirty his horse’s hoofs. | 7 | ·/˘·/˘· |
| The Chancellor’s horse’s hoofs | 7 | ·/˘˘/˘· |
| Stepped on the gravel and remained perfectly clean; | 12 | ···/˘·˘//˘˘· |
| But the bull employed in dragging the cart | 10 | ···˘/·/˘·· |
| Was almost sweating blood. | 6 | ·/·/˘· |
| The Assistant Chancellor’s business | 9 | ·˘/˘/˘˘/˘ |
| Is to “save men, govern the country | 9 | ····/˘·/˘ |
| And harmonize Yin and Yang.” | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Whether the bull’s neck is sore | 7 | ······· |
| Need not trouble him at all. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
Notes from the edition 1
Arthur Waley's notes to A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems (1918; Project Gutenberg #42290).
- Line 19 The negative and positive principles in nature.
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.