Part X
That night within the City of Youth there stoodMusicians playing to the multitudeOn many a gold and silver instrumentWhose differing souls yet chimed in glad consent.And sooth-tongued singers, throated like the birdAll darkness holds its breath to hear, were heardChanting aloud before the comely folk,Chanting aloud till none-for listening spoke,Chanting aloud that all the city rang;And whoso will may hear the song they sang:--
Words in this poem
- sooth a.
- True; faithful; trustworthy. [OE. soth, AS. s, for san; akin to OS. s, OHG. sand, Icel. sannr, Sw. sann, Dan. sand, Skr. sat, sant, real, genuine, present, being; properly p. pr. from a root]
- aloud adv.
- With a loud voice, or great noise; loudly; audibly. [Pref. a- + loud.]
- folk n.
- In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
- spoke n.
- The radius or ray of a wheel; one of the small bars which are inserted in the hub, or nave, and which serve to support the rim or felly. [OE. spoke, spake, AS, spaca; akin to D. speek, LG. speke, OHG. speihha, G. speiche. sq. root170. Cf. Spike a nail.]
- whoso pron.
- Whosoever. Piers Plowman.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Part X 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, Part X, in The Poems of William Watson (1892–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #13179, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/watson-poems/part-x.html, id L11359.
Form and metre
Part X is 10 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 80% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 86% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 50% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in heroic couplets, other poems in iambic 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.
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 --AABBCCDD stood · multitude · instrumentA · consentA · birdB · heardB · folkC · spokeC · rangD · sangD
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| That night within the City of Youth there stood | 11 | ·····/˘···· |
| Musicians playing to the multitude | 10 | ˘/˘/˘··/˘· |
| On many a gold and silver instrument | 11 | ·/˘···/˘/˘˘ |
| Whose differing souls yet chimed in glad consent. | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| And sooth-tongued singers, throated like the bird | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| All darkness holds its breath to hear, were heard | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Chanting aloud before the comely folk, | 10 | /˘˘/···/˘· |
| Chanting aloud till none-for listening spoke, | 10 | /˘˘/···/˘· |
| Chanting aloud that all the city rang; | 10 | /˘˘/···/˘· |
| And whoso will may hear the song they sang:-- | 10 | ·/˘······· |
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.