The Zilver-Weed
The zilver-weed upon the green,Out where my sons an' daughters play'd,Had never time to bloom betweenThe litty steps o' bwoy an' maid.But rwose-trees down along the wall,That then wer all the maiden's ceaere,An' all a-trimm'd an' train'd, did bearTheir bloomen buds vrom Spring to Fall.
But now the zilver leaves do showTo zummer day their goolden crown,Wi' noo swift shoe-zoles' litty blow,In merry play to beaet em down.An' where vor years zome busy handDid train the rwoses wide an' high;Now woone by woone the trees do die,An' vew of all the row do stand.
About this text
The Zilver-Weed 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, The Zilver-Weed, in Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect (1844–1862), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #21785, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/barnes-dorset/the-zilver-weed.html, id L02323.
Form and metre
The Zilver-Weed is 16 lines in 2 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See 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 ABABC--C greenA · play'dB · betweenA · maidB · wallC · ceaere · bear · fallC
- 2 ABABCDDC showA · crownB · blowA · downB · handC · highD · dieD · standC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The zilver-weed upon the green, | 8 | ········ |
| Out where my sons an' daughters play'd, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Had never time to bloom between | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The litty steps o' bwoy an' maid. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| But rwose-trees down along the wall, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| That then wer all the maiden's ceaere, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| An' all a-trimm'd an' train'd, did bear | 8 | ········ |
| Their bloomen buds vrom Spring to Fall. | 8 | ········ |
| But now the zilver leaves do show | 8 | ········ |
| To zummer day their goolden crown, | 8 | ········ |
| Wi' noo swift shoe-zoles' litty blow, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| In merry play to beaet em down. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| An' where vor years zome busy hand | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Did train the rwoses wide an' high; | 8 | ········ |
| Now woone by woone the trees do die, | 8 | ········ |
| An' vew of all the row do stand. | 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.