The Silver Spoon
To distant service my heart is well accustomed;When I left home, it wasn’t that which was difficultBut because I had to leave Miss Kuei at home--For this it was that tears filled my eyes.Little girls ought to be daintily fed:Mrs. Ts’ao, please see to this!That’s why I’ve packed and sent a silver spoon;You will think of me and eat up your food nicely!
Words in this poem
- ought p. p.
- Was or were under obligation to pay; owed. [Orig. the preterit of the verb to owe. OE. oughte, aughte, ahte, AS. ahte. sq. root110. See Owe.]
- daintily adv.
- In a dainty manner; nicely; scrupulously; fastidiously; deliciously; prettily.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Silver Spoon 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 Silver Spoon, in A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #42290, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/waley-chinese/the-silver-spoon.html, id L18858.
Form and metre
The Silver Spoon is 8 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. 87% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.5 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 12% 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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| To distant service my heart is well accustomed; | 12 | ·/˘/˘····˘/˘ |
| When I left home, it wasn’t that which was difficult | 13 | ·····/˘···/˘˘ |
| But because I had to leave Miss Kuei at home-- | 11 | ··········· |
| For this it was that tears filled my eyes. | 9 | ········· |
| Little girls ought to be daintily fed: | 10 | /˘····/˘˘· |
| Mrs. Ts’ao, please see to this! | 7 | /˘····· |
| That’s why I’ve packed and sent a silver spoon; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| You will think of me and eat up your food nicely! | 12 | ··········/˘ |
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.