Davies
'Still as a slave before his lord,The ocean hath no blast;His great bright eye most silentlyUp to the moon is cast--
If he may know which way to go;For she guides him smooth or grim.See, brother, see! how graciouslyShe looketh down on him.'
Words in this poem
- graciously adv.
- In a gracious manner; courteously; benignantly.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Davies is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth — Volume 2 (of 8), Project Gutenberg ebook #12145; 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 Wordsworth, Davies, in The Poetical Works, Volume II (1798–1807), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12145, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/wordsworth-vol2/davies.html, id L17318.
Form and metre
Davies is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.1 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in common measure.
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 -A-A lord · blastA · silently · castA
- 2 -A-A go · grimA · graciously · himA
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| 'Still as a slave before his lord, | 8 | ········ |
| The ocean hath no blast; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| His great bright eye most silently | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| Up to the moon is cast-- | 6 | ······ |
| If he may know which way to go; | 8 | ········ |
| For she guides him smooth or grim. | 7 | ······· |
| See, brother, see! how graciously | 8 | ·/˘··/˘˘ |
| She looketh down on him.' | 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.