Love Song
Daisies are brokenpetals are news of the daystems lift to the grass topsthey catch on shoespart in the middleleave root and leaves secure.
Black branchescarry square leavesto the wood’s top.They hold firmbreak with a roarshow the white!
Your moods are slowthe shedding of leavesand surethe return in May!
We walkedin your father’s groveand saw the great oakslying with rootsripped from the ground.
Winter has spent this snowout of envy, but spring is here!He sits at the breakfast tablein his yellow hairand disdains even the sunwalking outsidein spangled slippers:
He looks out: there isa glare of lightsbefore a theater,--a sparkling ladypasses quickly tothe seclusion ofher carriage.Presentlyunder the dirty, wavy heavenof a borrowed room he will makere-inhaled tobacco smokehis clouds and try themagainst the sky’s limits!
Words in this poem
- glare v. i.
- To shine with a bright, dazzling light. [OE. glaren, gloren; cf. AS. glær amber, LG. glaren to glow or burn like coals, D. gloren to glimmer; prob. akin to E. glass.]
- presently adv.
- At present; at this time; now.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Love Song 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, Love Song, in Al Que Quiere! (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51997, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/williams-al-que-quiere/love-song.html, id L01101.
Form and metre
Love Song is 41 lines in 6 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is trochaic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.0 syllables. 11 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 76% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic trimeter.
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.
- 5 -A-A--- snow · hereA · table · hairA · sun · outside · slippers
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Daisies are broken | 5 | /˘·/˘ |
| petals are news of the day | 7 | /˘····· |
| stems lift to the grass tops | 6 | ······ |
| they catch on shoes | 4 | ···· |
| part in the middle | 5 | ···/˘ |
| leave root and leaves secure. | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Black branches | 3 | ·/˘ |
| carry square leaves | 4 | /˘·· |
| to the wood’s top. | 4 | ···· |
| They hold firm | 3 | ··· |
| break with a roar | 4 | ···· |
| show the white! | 3 | ··· |
| Your moods are slow | 4 | ···· |
| the shedding of leaves | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| and sure | 2 | ·· |
| the return in May! | 5 | ·˘/·· |
| We walked | 2 | ·· |
| in your father’s grove | 5 | ··/˘· |
| and saw the great oaks | 5 | ····· |
| lying with roots | 4 | /˘·· |
| ripped from the ground. | 4 | ···· |
| Winter has spent this snow | 6 | /˘···· |
| out of envy, but spring is here! | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| He sits at the breakfast table | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| in his yellow hair | 5 | ··/˘· |
| and disdains even the sun | 7 | ·˘//˘·· |
| walking outside | 4 | /˘// |
| in spangled slippers: | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| He looks out: there is | 5 | ····· |
| a glare of lights | 4 | ···· |
| before a theater,-- | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| a sparkling lady | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| passes quickly to | 5 | /˘/˘· |
| the seclusion of | 5 | ·˘/˘· |
| her carriage. | 3 | ·/˘ |
| Presently | 3 | /˘˘ |
| under the dirty, wavy heaven | 9 | ···/˘/˘/˘ |
| of a borrowed room he will make | 8 | ··/····· |
| re-inhaled tobacco smoke | 7 | ·˘/˘/·· |
| his clouds and try them | 5 | ····· |
| against the sky’s limits! | 6 | ····/˘ |
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.