The Valley Wind
Living in retirement beyond the World,Silently enjoying isolation,I pull the rope of my door tighterAnd stuff my window with roots and ferns.My spirit is tuned to the Spring-season:At the fall of the year there is autumn in my heart.Thus imitating cosmic changesMy cottage becomes a Universe.
Words in this poem
- isolation n.
- The act of isolating, or the state of being isolated; insulation; separation; loneliness. Milman. [Cf. F. isolation.]
- tighter n.
- A ribbon or string used to draw clothes closer.
- cosmic a.
- Pertaining to the universe, and having special reference to universal law or order, or to the one grand harmonious system of things; hence; harmonious; orderly. [Gr. kosmiko`s of the world, fr. ko`smos: cf. F. cosmique. See Cosmos.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Valley Wind 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 Valley Wind, in A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #42290, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/waley-chinese/the-valley-wind.html, id L18780.
Form and metre
The Valley Wind is 8 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is trochaic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 74%). 88% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic pentameter.
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. Read against trochaic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Living in retirement beyond the World, | 10 | /˘·˘/˘···· |
| Silently enjoying isolation, | 10 | /˘˘˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| I pull the rope of my door tighter | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| And stuff my window with roots and ferns. | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| My spirit is tuned to the Spring-season: | 10 | ·/˘·····/˘ |
| At the fall of the year there is autumn in my heart. | 13 | ········/˘··· |
| Thus imitating cosmic changes | 9 | ·/˘·˘/˘/˘ |
| My cottage becomes a Universe. | 9 | ·/˘˘/·/˘· |
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.