His Sister
An' there the pigs did scoteAzide, in fright, wi' squeaken droat,Wi' geese a pitchen up a note.Look there.
She's in the plot.A-routen up the flower knot.Ho! Towzer! Here, rout out the zow,Heigh! here, hie at her. Tiss!
How he do rant and roar,An' stump an' stamp about the vloor,An' swing, an' slap, an' slam the door!He don't put down a thing,But he do dab, an' dash, an' dingIt down, till all the house do ring.
Words in this poem
- slam v. t.
- To shut with force and a loud noise; to bang; as, he slammed the door. [Of Scand. origin; cf. Icel. slamra, slambra, sl, Norw. slemba, slemma, dial. Sw. slämma.]
- ding v. t.
- To dash; to throw violently. [OE. dingen, dengen; akin to AS. dencgan to knock, Icel. dengja to beat, hammer, Sw. dänga, G. dengeln.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
His Sister is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect, Project Gutenberg ebook #21785; 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 Barnes, His Sister, in Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect (1844–1862), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #21785, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/barnes-dorset/his-sister.html, id L18522.
Form and metre
His Sister is 14 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 57% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.7 syllables. 14% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 AAA- scoteA · droatA · noteA · there
- 2 AA-- plotA · knotA · zow · tiss
- 3 AAABBB roarA · vloorA · doorA · thingB · dingB · ringB
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| An' there the pigs did scote | 6 | ······ |
| Azide, in fright, wi' squeaken droat, | 8 | ········ |
| Wi' geese a pitchen up a note. | 8 | ········ |
| Look there. | 2 | ·· |
| She's in the plot. | 4 | ···· |
| A-routen up the flower knot. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Ho! Towzer! Here, rout out the zow, | 8 | ········ |
| Heigh! here, hie at her. Tiss! | 6 | ······ |
| How he do rant and roar, | 6 | ······ |
| An' stump an' stamp about the vloor, | 8 | ········ |
| An' swing, an' slap, an' slam the door! | 8 | ········ |
| He don't put down a thing, | 6 | ······ |
| But he do dab, an' dash, an' ding | 8 | ········ |
| It down, till all the house do ring. | 8 | ········ |
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.