A Song of Three Singers I
Wave and wind and willow-treeSpeak a speech that no man knoweth;Tree that sigheth, wind that bloweth,Wave that floweth to the sea:Wave and wind and willow-tree.
Peerless perfect poets ye,Singing songs all songs excelling,Fine as crystal music dwellingIn a welling fountain free:Peerless perfect poets three!
About this text
A Song of Three Singers I is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of William Watson, Project Gutenberg ebook #13179; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Watson, A Song of Three Singers I, in The Poems of William Watson (1892–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #13179, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/watson-poems/a-song-of-three-singers-i.html, id L11366.
Form and metre
A Song of Three Singers I is 10 lines in 2 stanzas of 5 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABBAA. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.4 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 20% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic 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 ABBAA treeA · knowethB · blowethB · seaA · treeA
- 2 ABBAA yeA · excellingB · dwellingB · freeA · threeA
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Wave and wind and willow-tree | 7 | ····/·· |
| Speak a speech that no man knoweth; | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Tree that sigheth, wind that bloweth, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Wave that floweth to the sea: | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Wave and wind and willow-tree. | 7 | ····/·· |
| Peerless perfect poets ye, | 7 | /˘/·/˘· |
| Singing songs all songs excelling, | 8 | /˘···˘/˘ |
| Fine as crystal music dwelling | 8 | ··/˘/˘/˘ |
| In a welling fountain free: | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Peerless perfect poets three! | 7 | /˘/·/˘· |
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.