The Wood-God
Brother, lost brother!Thou of mine ancient kin!Thou of the swift will that no ponderings smother!The dumb life in me fumbles out to the shadeThou lurkest in.In vain--evasive ever through the gladeDeparting footsteps fail;And only where the grasses have been pressed,Or by snapped twigs I follow a fruitless trail.So--give o'er the quest!Sprawl on the roots and moss!Let the lithe garter squirm across my throat!Let the slow clouds and leaves above me floatInto mine eyeballs and across,--Nor think them further! Lo, the marvel! now,Thou whom my soul desireth, even thouSprawl'st by my side, who fled'st at my pursuit.I hear thy fluting; at my shoulder thereI see the sharp ears through the tangled hair,And birds and bunnies at thy music mute.
Words in this poem
- glade n.
- An open passage through a wood; a grassy open or cleared space in a forest. [Prob. of Scand. origin, and akin to glad, a.; cf. also W. golead, goleuad, a lighting, illumination, fr. goleu light, clear, bright, goleu fwlch glade, lit., a ]
- fruitless a.
- Lacking, or not bearing, fruit; barren; destitute of offspring; as, a fruitless tree or shrub; a fruitless marriage.
- sprawl v. i.
- To spread and stretch the body or limbs carelessly in a horizontal position; to lie with the limbs stretched out ungracefully. [OE. spraulen; cf. Sw. sprattla to sprawl, dial. Sw. spralla, Dan. spælle, sprælde, D. spartelen, spertelen, to flounder, to struggle.]
- lithe v. i.
- To listen or listen to; to hearken to. P. Plowman. [Icel Listen.]
- garter n.
- A band used to prevent a stocking from slipping down on the leg. [OE. gartier, F. jarretière, fr. OF. garet bend of the knee, F. jarret; akin to Sp. garra claw, Prov. garra leg. See Garrote.]
- squirm v. i.
- To twist about briskly with contor [Cf. Swarm to climb a tree.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Wood-God 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 Wood-God, in More Songs from Vagabondia (1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18007, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/carman-vagabondia/the-wood-god.html, id L24687.
Form and metre
The Wood-God is 20 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABACBCDEDEFGGFHHIJJI. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
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 ABACBCDEDEFGGFHHIJJI brotherA · kinB · smotherA · shadeC · inB · gladeC · failD · pressedE · trailD · questE · mossF · throatG · floatG · acrossF · nowH · thouH · pursuitI · thereJ · hairJ · muteI
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Brother, lost brother! | 5 | /˘·/˘ |
| Thou of mine ancient kin! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Thou of the swift will that no ponderings smother! | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| The dumb life in me fumbles out to the shade | 11 | ·····/˘···· |
| Thou lurkest in. | 4 | ·/˘· |
| In vain--evasive ever through the glade | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| Departing footsteps fail; | 6 | ˘/˘/·· |
| And only where the grasses have been pressed, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Or by snapped twigs I follow a fruitless trail. | 11 | ·····/˘·/˘· |
| So--give o'er the quest! | 5 | ····· |
| Sprawl on the roots and moss! | 6 | ······ |
| Let the lithe garter squirm across my throat! | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| Let the slow clouds and leaves above me float | 10 | ·········· |
| Into mine eyeballs and across,-- | 8 | ···/··˘/ |
| Nor think them further! Lo, the marvel! now, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Thou whom my soul desireth, even thou | 10 | ····˘/˘/˘· |
| Sprawl'st by my side, who fled'st at my pursuit. | 10 | ········˘/ |
| I hear thy fluting; at my shoulder there | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| I see the sharp ears through the tangled hair, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And birds and bunnies at thy music mute. | 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.