Market-Day.—Calcot
Through the wood's maze our eyes delighted stray,To mark the rustics on the market-day.Beneath the branches winds the long white road;Here peeps the rustic cottager's abode;There in the morning sun, the children play,Or the crone creeps along the dusty way.
Artist, I own thy genius; but the touchMay be too restless, and the glare too much:And sure none ever saw a landscape shine,Basking in beams of such a sun as thine,But felt a fervid dew upon his phiz,And panting cried, O Lord, how hot it is!
Words in this poem
- maze n.
- A wild fancy; a confused notion. [OE. mase; cf. OE. masen to confuse, puzzle, Norweg. masast to fall into a slumber, masa to be continually busy, prate, chatter, Icel. masa to chatter, dial. Sw.]
- delighted a.
- Endowed with delight.
- abode n.
- Act of waiting; delay. [OE. abad, abood, fr. abiden to abide. See Abide. For the change of vowel, cf. abode, imp. of abide.]
- crone n.
- An old ewe. Tusser. [OD. kronie, karonie, an old sheep, OF. carogne, F. charogne, carrion (also F. carogne illnatured woman.). See Carrion, and Crony.]
- artist n.
- One who practices some mechanic art or craft; an artisan. [F. artiste, LL. artista, fr. L. ars. See Art, n., and cf. Artiste.]
- glare v. i.
- To shine with a bright, dazzling light. [OE. glaren, gloren; cf. AS. glær amber, LG. glaren to glow or burn like coals, D. gloren to glimmer; prob. akin to E. glass.]
- fervid a.
- Very hot; burning; boiling. [L. fervidus, fr. fervere. See Fervent.]
- phiz n.
- The face or visage. [Contr. fr. physiognomy.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Market-Day.—Calcot is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of William Lisle Bowles, Vol. 1 With Memoir, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory Notes by George Gilfillan, Project Gutenberg ebook #18915; 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 Lisle Bowles, Market-Day.—Calcot, in The Poetical Works, Volume I (1789–1837), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18915, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bowles-sonnets/market-day-calcot.html, id L09969.
Form and metre
Market-Day.—Calcot is 12 lines in 2 stanzas of 6 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 8% 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 AABBAA strayA · dayA · roadB · abodeB · playA · wayA
- 2 AABBCC touchA · muchA · shineB · thineB · phizC · isC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Through the wood's maze our eyes delighted stray, | 10 | ····/·˘/˘· |
| To mark the rustics on the market-day. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Beneath the branches winds the long white road; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Here peeps the rustic cottager's abode; | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| There in the morning sun, the children play, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Or the crone creeps along the dusty way. | 10 | ····˘/·/˘· |
| Artist, I own thy genius; but the touch | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| May be too restless, and the glare too much: | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And sure none ever saw a landscape shine, | 10 | ···/˘··/·· |
| Basking in beams of such a sun as thine, | 10 | /˘········ |
| But felt a fervid dew upon his phiz, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And panting cried, O Lord, how hot it is! | 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.