Sea Lullaby
The old moon is tarnishedWith smoke of the flood,The dead leaves are varnishedWith color like blood,
A treacherous smilerWith teeth white as milk,A savage beguilerIn sheathings of silk,
The sea creeps to pillage,She leaps on her prey;A child of the villageWas murdered to-day.
She came up to meet himIn a smooth golden cloak,She choked him and beat himTo death, for a joke.
Her bright locks were tangled,She shouted for joy,With one hand she strangledA strong little boy.
Now in silence she lingersBeside him all nightTo wash her long fingersIn silvery light.
Words in this poem
- smiler n.
- One who smiles.
- beguiler n.
- One who, or that which, beguiles.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sea Lullaby 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, Sea Lullaby, in Nets to Catch the Wind (1921), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6682, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/wylie-nets/sea-lullaby.html, id L12773.
Form and metre
Sea Lullaby is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is anapaestic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.6 syllables. 10 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 46% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in anapaestic dimeter.
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 ABAB tarnishedA · floodB · varnishedA · bloodB
- 2 ABAB smilerA · milkB · beguilerA · silkB
- 3 ABAB pillageA · preyB · villageA · dayB
- 4 ABAB himA · cloakB · himA · jokeB
- 5 ABAB tangledA · joyB · strangledA · boyB
- 6 ABAB lingersA · nightB · fingersA · lightB
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 anapaestic dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The old moon is tarnished | 6 | ····/˘ |
| With smoke of the flood, | 5 | ····· |
| The dead leaves are varnished | 6 | ····/˘ |
| With color like blood, | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| A treacherous smiler | 6 | ·/˘˘/˘ |
| With teeth white as milk, | 5 | ····· |
| A savage beguiler | 6 | ·/˘˘/˘ |
| In sheathings of silk, | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| The sea creeps to pillage, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| She leaps on her prey; | 5 | ····· |
| A child of the village | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Was murdered to-day. | 6 | ·/˘˘·· |
| She came up to meet him | 6 | ······ |
| In a smooth golden cloak, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| She choked him and beat him | 6 | ······ |
| To death, for a joke. | 5 | ····· |
| Her bright locks were tangled, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| She shouted for joy, | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| With one hand she strangled | 6 | ····/˘ |
| A strong little boy. | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Now in silence she lingers | 7 | ··/˘·/˘ |
| Beside him all night | 5 | ˘/··· |
| To wash her long fingers | 6 | ····/˘ |
| In silvery light. | 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.