Nancy
You are a rose, but set with sharpest spine;You are a pretty bird that pecks at me;You are a little squirrel on a tree,Pelting me with the prickly fruit of the pine;A diamond, torn from a crystal mine,Not like that milky treasure of the seaA smooth, translucent pearl, but skilfullyCarven to cut, and faceted to shine.
If you are flame, it dances and burns blue;If you are light, it pierces like a starIntenser than a needlepoint of ice.The dexterous touch that shaped the soul of you,Mingled, to mix, and make you what you are,Magic between the sugar and the spice.
Words in this poem
- carven a.
- Wrought by carving; ornamented by carvings; carved.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Nancy is in the public domain. This text is taken from Nets to Catch the Wind, Project Gutenberg ebook #6682; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Elinor Wylie, Nancy, in Nets to Catch the Wind (1921), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6682, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/wylie-nets/nancy.html, id L12774.
Form and metre
Nancy is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 83% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 21% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ABBAAB-A spineA · meB · treeB · pineA · mineA · seaB · skilfully · shineA
- 2 ABCABC blueA · starB · iceC · youA · areB · spiceC
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 iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| You are a rose, but set with sharpest spine; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| You are a pretty bird that pecks at me; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| You are a little squirrel on a tree, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Pelting me with the prickly fruit of the pine; | 11 | /˘···/˘···· |
| A diamond, torn from a crystal mine, | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
| Not like that milky treasure of the sea | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| A smooth, translucent pearl, but skilfully | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Carven to cut, and faceted to shine. | 9 | /˘···/˘·· |
| If you are flame, it dances and burns blue; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| If you are light, it pierces like a star | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Intenser than a needlepoint of ice. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| The dexterous touch that shaped the soul of you, | 11 | ·/˘˘······· |
| Mingled, to mix, and make you what you are, | 10 | /˘········ |
| Magic between the sugar and the spice. | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
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.