The Hearse-Horse
Said the hearse-horse to the coffin,"What the devil have you there?I may trot from court to square,Yet it neither swears nor groans,When I jolt it over stones."Said the coffin to the hearse-horse,"Bones!"
Said the hearse-horse to the coffin,"What the devil have you there,With that purple frozen stare?Where the devil has it beenTo get that shadow grin?"Said the coffin to the hearse-horse,"Skin!"
Said the hearse-horse to the coffin,"What the devil have you there?It has fingers, it has hair;Yet it neither kicks nor squirmsAt the undertaker's terms."Said the coffin to the hearse-horse,"Worms!"
Words in this poem
- grin n.
- A snare; a gin. [AS. grin.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Hearse-Horse 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, The Hearse-Horse, in More Songs from Vagabondia (1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18007, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/carman-vagabondia/the-hearse-horse.html, id L24730.
Form and metre
The Hearse-Horse is 21 lines in 3 stanzas of 7 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 57% of the lines. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in trochaic 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 -AABB-B coffin · thereA · squareA · groansB · stonesB · horse · bonesB
- 2 ABBAA-A coffinA · thereB · stareB · beenA · grinA · horse · skinA
- 3 -AABB-B coffin · thereA · hairA · squirmsB · termsB · horse · wormsB
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Said the hearse-horse to the coffin, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| "What the devil have you there? | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| I may trot from court to square, | 7 | ······· |
| Yet it neither swears nor groans, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| When I jolt it over stones." | 7 | ······· |
| Said the coffin to the hearse-horse, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| "Bones!" | 1 | · |
| Said the hearse-horse to the coffin, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| "What the devil have you there, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| With that purple frozen stare? | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Where the devil has it been | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| To get that shadow grin?" | 6 | ···/·· |
| Said the coffin to the hearse-horse, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| "Skin!" | 1 | · |
| Said the hearse-horse to the coffin, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| "What the devil have you there? | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| It has fingers, it has hair; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Yet it neither kicks nor squirms | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| At the undertaker's terms." | 7 | ··/˘·˘· |
| Said the coffin to the hearse-horse, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| "Worms!" | 1 | · |
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.