Dawn
Ecstatic bird songs poundthe hollow vastness of the skywith metallic clinkings--beating color up into itat a far edge,--beating it, beating itwith rising, triumphant ardor,--stirring it into warmth,quickening in it a spreading change,--bursting wildly against it asdividing the horizon, a heavy sunlifts himself--is lifted--bit by bit above the edgeof things,--runs free at lastout into the open--! lumberingglorified in full release upward--songs cease.
Words in this poem
- quickening n.
- The act or process of making or of becoming quick.
- lumbering n.
- The business of cutting or getting timber or logs from the forest for lumber. [U.S.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Dawn is in the public domain. This text is taken from A Book of Poems, Al Que Quiere!, Project Gutenberg ebook #51997; 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 Carlos Williams, Dawn, in Al Que Quiere! (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51997, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/williams-al-que-quiere/dawn.html, id L01114.
Form and metre
Dawn is 15 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. 88% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.9 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 60% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 ---AA---------- pound · sky · clinkings · itA · itA · ardor · warmth · change · as · sun · lifted · edge · last · lumbering · cease
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Ecstatic bird songs pound | 6 | ˘/˘··· |
| the hollow vastness of the sky | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| with metallic clinkings-- | 6 | ·˘/˘·· |
| beating color up into it | 8 | /˘/˘···· |
| at a far edge,--beating it, beating it | 10 | ····/˘·/˘· |
| with rising, triumphant ardor,-- | 8 | ·/˘˘/˘/˘ |
| stirring it into warmth, | 6 | /˘···· |
| quickening in it a spreading change,-- | 9 | /˘˘···/˘· |
| bursting wildly against it as | 8 | /˘/˘···· |
| dividing the horizon, a heavy sun | 11 | ˘/˘·˘/˘·/˘· |
| lifts himself--is lifted-- | 6 | ·˘/·/˘ |
| bit by bit above the edge | 7 | ······· |
| of things,--runs free at last | 6 | ······ |
| out into the open--! lumbering | 9 | ····/˘/˘˘ |
| glorified in full release upward--songs cease. | 11 | /˘···˘//˘·· |
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.