Prelude
The mighty poets from their flowing storeDispense like casual alms the careless ore;Through throngs of men their lonely way they go,Let fall their costly thoughts, nor seem to know.--Not mine the rich and showering hand, that strewsThe facile largess of a stintless Muse.A fitful presence, seldom tarrying long,Capriciously she touches me to song--Then leaves me to lament her flight in vain,And wonder will she ever come again.
Words in this poem
- dispense v. i.
- To compensate; to make up; to make amends.
- facile a.
- Easy to be done or performed: not difficult; performable or attainable with little labor. [L. facilis, prop., capable of being done or made, hence, facile, easy, fr. facere to make, do: cf. F. facile. Srr Fact, and cf. Faculty.]
- largess n.
- Liberality; generosity; bounty. [F. largesse, fr. large. See Large, a.]
- stintless a.
- Without stint or restraint.
- fitful a.
- Full of fits; irregularly variable; impulsive and unstable. [From 7th Fit.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Prelude 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, Prelude, in The Poems of William Watson (1892–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #13179, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/watson-poems/prelude.html, id L11244.
Form and metre
Prelude is 10 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 20% 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 AABBCCDDEE storeA · oreA · goB · knowB · strewsC · museC · longD · songD · vainE · againE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The mighty poets from their flowing store | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Dispense like casual alms the careless ore; | 10 | ˘/·/˘··/˘· |
| Through throngs of men their lonely way they go, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Let fall their costly thoughts, nor seem to know.-- | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Not mine the rich and showering hand, that strews | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| The facile largess of a stintless Muse. | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| A fitful presence, seldom tarrying long, | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘/˘· |
| Capriciously she touches me to song-- | 10 | ˘/˘˘·/˘··· |
| Then leaves me to lament her flight in vain, | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| And wonder will she ever come again. | 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.