Changed Voices
Last night the seawind was to meA metaphor of liberty,And every wave along the beachA starlit music seemed to be.
To-day the seawind is to meA fettered soul that would be free,And dumbly striving after speechThe tides yearn landward painfully.
To-morrow how shall sound for meThe changing voice of wind and sea?What tidings shall be borne of each?What rumour of what mystery?
Words in this poem
- starlit a.
- Lighted by the stars; starlight.
- fettered a.
- Seeming as if fettered, as the feet pf certain animals which bend backward, and appear unfit for walking.
- dumbly adv.
- In silence; mutely.
- yearn v. t.
- To pain; to grieve; to vex. [Also earn, ern; probably a corruption of OE. ermen to grieve, AS. ierman, yrman, or geierman, geyrman, fr. earm wretched, poor; akin to D. & G. arm, Icel. armr,]
- landward adv.
- Toward the land.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- rumour n.
- A flying or popular report; the common talk; hence, public fame; notoriety. [F. rumeur, L. rumor; cf. rumificare, rumitare to rumor, Skr. ru to cry.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Changed Voices 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, Changed Voices, in The Poems of William Watson (1892–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #13179, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/watson-poems/changed-voices.html, id L11364.
Form and metre
Changed Voices is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 87% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.2 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 42% 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.
- 1 A-BA meA · liberty · beachB · beA
- 2 AAB- meA · freeA · speechB · painfully
- 3 AAB- meA · seaA · eachB · mystery
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Last night the seawind was to me | 8 | ········ |
| A metaphor of liberty, | 8 | ·/˘˘·/˘˘ |
| And every wave along the beach | 9 | ·/˘˘·˘/·· |
| A starlit music seemed to be. | 9 | ·/˘/˘·˘·· |
| To-day the seawind is to me | 8 | ········ |
| A fettered soul that would be free, | 9 | ·/˘˘····· |
| And dumbly striving after speech | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| The tides yearn landward painfully. | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| To-morrow how shall sound for me | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The changing voice of wind and sea? | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| What tidings shall be borne of each? | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| What rumour of what mystery? | 8 | ··˘··/˘˘ |
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.