Hem and Haw
Hem and Haw were the sons of sin,Created to shally and shirk;Hem lay 'round and Haw looked onWhile God did all the work.
Hem was a fogy, and Haw was a prig,For both had the dull, dull mind;And whenever they found a thing to do,They yammered and went it blind.
Hem was the father of bigots and bores;As the sands of the sea were they.And Haw was the father of all the tribeWho criticise to-day.
But God was an artist from the first,And knew what he was about;While over his shoulder sneered these two,And advised him to rub it out.
They prophesied ruin ere man was made:"Such folly must surely fail!"And when he was done, "Do you think, my Lord,He's better without a tail?"
And still in the honest working world,With posture and hint and smirk,These sons of the devil are standing byWhile Man does all the work.
They balk endeavor and baffle reform,In the sacred name of law;And over the quavering voice of HemIs the droning voice of Haw.
Words in this poem
- prig v. i.
- To haggle about the price of a commodity; to bargain hard. [A modification of prick.]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- 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.]
- baffle v. i.
- To cause to undergo a disgraceful punishment, as a recreant knight. [Cf. Lowland Scotch bauchle to treat contemptuously, bauch tasteless, abashed, jaded, Icel. bagr uneasy, poor, or bagr, n., struggle, bægja to push, treat harshl]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Hem and Haw is in the public domain. This text is taken from More Songs From Vagabondia, Project Gutenberg ebook #18007; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Bliss Carman, Hem and Haw, in More Songs from Vagabondia (1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18007, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/carman-vagabondia/hem-and-haw.html, id L24733.
Form and metre
Hem and Haw is 28 lines in 7 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 78%).
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 -A-A sin · shirkA · on · workA
- 2 -A-A prig · mindA · do · blindA
- 3 -A-A bores · theyA · tribe · dayA
- 4 -A-A first · aboutA · two · outA
- 5 -A-A made · failA · lord · tailA
- 6 -A-A world · smirkA · by · workA
- 7 -A-A reform · lawA · hem · hawA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Hem and Haw were the sons of sin, | 8 | ········ |
| Created to shally and shirk; | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
| Hem lay 'round and Haw looked on | 7 | ······· |
| While God did all the work. | 6 | ······ |
| Hem was a fogy, and Haw was a prig, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| For both had the dull, dull mind; | 7 | ······· |
| And whenever they found a thing to do, | 10 | ·˘/˘······ |
| They yammered and went it blind. | 7 | ······· |
| Hem was the father of bigots and bores; | 10 | ···/˘·/˘·· |
| As the sands of the sea were they. | 8 | ········ |
| And Haw was the father of all the tribe | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| Who criticise to-day. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| But God was an artist from the first, | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| And knew what he was about; | 7 | ······· |
| While over his shoulder sneered these two, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And advised him to rub it out. | 8 | ·˘/····· |
| They prophesied ruin ere man was made: | 9 | ·/˘·/···· |
| "Such folly must surely fail!" | 7 | ·/˘·/˘· |
| And when he was done, "Do you think, my Lord, | 10 | ·········· |
| He's better without a tail?" | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| And still in the honest working world, | 9 | ····/˘/˘· |
| With posture and hint and smirk, | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| These sons of the devil are standing by | 9 | ····/·/˘· |
| While Man does all the work. | 6 | ······ |
| They balk endeavor and baffle reform, | 10 | ··˘/˘·/˘˘/ |
| In the sacred name of law; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| And over the quavering voice of Hem | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Is the droning voice of Haw. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
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.