The Eastern Gate
A poor man determines to go out into the world and make his fortune.His wife tries to detain him.
I went out at the eastern gate:I never thought to return.But I came back to the gate with my heart full of sorrow.
There was not a peck of rice in the bin:There was not a coat hanging on the pegs.So I took my sword and went towards the gate.My wife and child clutched at my coat and wept:“Some people want to be rich and grand:I only want to share my porridge with you.Above, we have the blue waves of the sky:Below, the yellow face of this little child.”“Dear wife, I cannot stay.Soon it will be too late.When one is growing oldOne cannot put things off.”
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Eastern Gate 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 Eastern Gate, in A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #42290, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/waley-chinese/the-eastern-gate.html, id L18749.
Form and metre
The Eastern Gate is 17 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter. 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.4 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 6% 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.
- 3 --A------A-- bin · pegs · gateA · wept · grand · you · sky · child · stay · lateA · old · off
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A poor man determines to go out into the world and make his fortune. | 18 | ···˘/˘··········/˘ |
| His wife tries to detain him. | 7 | ····˘/· |
| I went out at the eastern gate: | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| I never thought to return. | 7 | ·/˘··˘/ |
| But I came back to the gate with my heart full of sorrow. | 14 | ············/˘ |
| There was not a peck of rice in the bin: | 10 | ·········· |
| There was not a coat hanging on the pegs. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| So I took my sword and went towards the gate. | 11 | ··········· |
| My wife and child clutched at my coat and wept: | 10 | ·········· |
| “Some people want to be rich and grand: | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| I only want to share my porridge with you. | 11 | ·/˘····/˘·· |
| Above, we have the blue waves of the sky: | 10 | ·········· |
| Below, the yellow face of this little child.” | 11 | ···/˘···/˘· |
| “Dear wife, I cannot stay. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Soon it will be too late. | 6 | ······ |
| When one is growing old | 6 | ···/˘· |
| One cannot put things off.” | 6 | ·/˘··· |
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.