To Waken an Old Lady
Old age isa flight of smallcheeping birdsskimmingbare treesabove a snow glaze.Gaining and failingthey are buffettedby a dark wind--But what?On harsh weedstalksthe flock has rested,the snowis covered with brokenseedhusksand the wind temperedby a shrillpiping of plenty.
Words in this poem
- skimming n.
- The act of one who skims.
- piping a.
- Playing on a musical pipe. [From Pipe, v.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Waken an Old Lady is in the public domain. This text is taken from Sour Grapes: A Book of Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #35667; 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, To Waken an Old Lady, in Sour Grapes (1921), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #35667, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/williams-sour-grapes/to-waken-an-old-lady.html, id L01158.
Form and metre
To Waken an Old Lady is 18 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 3.7 syllables. 7 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 72% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Old age is | 3 | ··· |
| a flight of small | 4 | ···· |
| cheeping birds | 3 | ··· |
| skimming | 2 | /˘ |
| bare trees | 2 | ·· |
| above a snow glaze. | 5 | ····· |
| Gaining and failing | 5 | /˘·/˘ |
| they are buffetted | 5 | ··/˘˘ |
| by a dark wind-- | 4 | ···· |
| But what? | 2 | ·· |
| On harsh weedstalks | 4 | ···· |
| the flock has rested, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| the snow | 2 | ·· |
| is covered with broken | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| seedhusks | 2 | ·· |
| and the wind tempered | 5 | ···/˘ |
| by a shrill | 3 | ··· |
| piping of plenty. | 5 | /˘·/˘ |
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.