The Heron Lyrics

The heron stands in water where the swamp
Has deepened to the blackness of a pool,
Or balances with one leg on a hump
Or marsh grass heaped above a muskrat hole.

He walks the shallow with an antic grace.
The great feet break the ridges of the sand,
The long eye notes the minnow's hiding place.
His beak is quicker than a human hand.

He jerks a frog across his bony lip,
Then points his heavy bill above the wood.
The wide wings flap but once to lift him up.
A single ripple starts from where he stood.

How to Format Lyrics:

  • Type out all lyrics, even repeating song parts like the chorus
  • Lyrics should be broken down into individual lines
  • Use section headers above different song parts like [Verse], [Chorus], etc.
  • Use italics (<i>lyric</i>) and bold (<b>lyric</b>) to distinguish between different vocalists in the same song part
  • If you don’t understand a lyric, use [?]

To learn more, check out our transcription guide or visit our transcribers forum

About

Genius Annotation

Most poets and critics (friends and foes alike of traditional form) treat meter and rhythm as though they were synonymous, as though the metrical identity of a line of iambic pentameter, say, were equivalent to its rhythmical identity. The metrical norm of iambic pentameter, however, is an abstraction, a theoretical construction—I am, I am, I am, I am, I am—but because no two syllables carry the same stress, that is, the same length and degree of emphasis, every line of actual pentameter verse will and ought to depart to some extent from the metrical norm. The stress among the unswatted and swatted, unaccented and accented, syllables will constantly vary even as the metrical scheme itself remains the same. It’s possible then to write scores of iambic pentameter lines with no two sounding quite the same, lines which are metrically identical but rhythmically unique.
“The Heron,” by Theodore Roethke, illustrates this distinction.

The New Formalism
Alan Shapiro
Critical Inquiry , Vol. 14, No. 1 (Autumn, 1987) , pp. 200-213
Published by: The University of Chicago Press
Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1343578

Q&A

Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning

Comments