Riposte
Love is like water or the airmy townspeople;it cleanses, and dissipates evil gases.It is like poetry tooand for the same reasons.
Love is so preciousmy townspeoplethat if I were you I wouldhave it under lock and key--like the air or the Atlantic orlike poetry!
Words in this poem
- townspeople n.
- The inhabitants of a town or city, especially in distinction from country people; townsfolk.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Riposte 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, Riposte, in Al Que Quiere! (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51997, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/williams-al-que-quiere/riposte.html, id L01126.
Form and metre
Riposte is 11 lines in 2 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. 83% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.5 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 55% 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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Love is like water or the air | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| my townspeople; | 4 | ·/·˘ |
| it cleanses, and dissipates evil gases. | 11 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘/˘ |
| It is like poetry too | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| and for the same reasons. | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Love is so precious | 5 | ···/˘ |
| my townspeople | 4 | ·/·˘ |
| that if I were you I would | 7 | ······· |
| have it under lock and key-- | 7 | ······· |
| like the air or the Atlantic or | 9 | ·····˘/˘· |
| like poetry! | 4 | ·/˘˘ |
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.