A Voice on the Wind
She walks with the wind on the windy heightWhen the rocks are loud and the waves are white,And all night long she calls through the night,"O my children, come home!"Her bleak gown, torn as a tattered cloud,Tosses around her like a shroud,While over the deep her voice rings loud,--"O my children, come home, come home!O my children, come home!"
Who is she who wanders alone,When the wind drives sheer and the rain is blown?Who walks all night and makes her moan,"O my children, come home!"Whose face is raised to the blinding gale;Whose hair blows black and whose eyes are pale,While over the world goes by her wail,--"O my children, come home, come home!O my children, come home!"
She walks with the wind in the windy wood;The dark rain drips from her hair and hood,And her cry sobs by, like a ghost pursued,"O my children, come home!"Where the trees loom gaunt and the rocks stretch drear,The owl and the fox crouch back with fear,As wild through the wood her voice they hear,--"O my children, come home, come home!O my children, come home!"
Who is she who shudders byWhen the boughs blow bare and the dead leaves fly?Who walks all night with her wailing cry,"O my children, come home!"Who, strange of look, and wild of tongue,With wan feet wounded and hands wild-wrung,Sweeps on and on with her cry, far-flung,--"O my children, come home, come home!O my children, come home!"
'Tis the Spirit of Autumn, no man sees,The mother of Death and of Mysteries,Who cries on the wind all night to these,"O my children, come home!"The Spirit of Autumn, pierced with pain,Calling her children home again,Death and Dreams, through ruin and rain,--"O my children, come home, come home!O my children, come home!"
Words in this poem
- ghost n.
- The spirit; the soul of man. [OE. gast, gost, soul, spirit, AS. gast breath, spirit, soul; akin to OS. g spirit, soul, D. geest, G. geist, and prob. to E. gaze, ghastly.]
- gaunt a.
- Attenuated, as with fasting or suffering; lean; meager; pinched and grim. [Cf. Norw. gand a thin pointed stick, a tall and thin man, and W. gwan weak.]
- drear n.
- Sadness; dismalness.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Voice on the Wind is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #7796; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Madison Julius Cawein, A Voice on the Wind, in Poems (1911), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7796, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/cawein-poems/a-voice-on-the-wind.html, id L10933.
Form and metre
A Voice on the Wind is 45 lines in 5 stanzas of 9 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AAABCCCBB, complete in 4 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 74%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.1 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
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 AAABCCCBB heightA · whiteA · nightA · homeB · cloudC · shroudC · loudC · homeB · homeB
- 2 AAABCCCBB aloneA · blownA · moanA · homeB · galeC · paleC · wailC · homeB · homeB
- 3 AA-BCCCBB woodA · hoodA · pursued · homeB · drearC · fearC · hearC · homeB · homeB
- 4 AAABCCCBB byA · flyA · cryA · homeB · tongueC · wrungC · flungC · homeB · homeB
- 5 AAABCCCBB seesA · mysteriesA · theseA · homeB · painC · againC · rainC · homeB · homeB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| She walks with the wind on the windy height | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| When the rocks are loud and the waves are white, | 10 | ·········· |
| And all night long she calls through the night, | 9 | ········· |
| "O my children, come home!" | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| Her bleak gown, torn as a tattered cloud, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Tosses around her like a shroud, | 8 | /˘······ |
| While over the deep her voice rings loud,-- | 8 | ········ |
| "O my children, come home, come home! | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| O my children, come home!" | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| Who is she who wanders alone, | 8 | ····/˘˘/ |
| When the wind drives sheer and the rain is blown? | 10 | ·········· |
| Who walks all night and makes her moan, | 8 | ········ |
| "O my children, come home!" | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| Whose face is raised to the blinding gale; | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Whose hair blows black and whose eyes are pale, | 9 | ········· |
| While over the world goes by her wail,-- | 8 | ········ |
| "O my children, come home, come home! | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| O my children, come home!" | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| She walks with the wind in the windy wood; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The dark rain drips from her hair and hood, | 9 | ········· |
| And her cry sobs by, like a ghost pursued, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| "O my children, come home!" | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| Where the trees loom gaunt and the rocks stretch drear, | 10 | ·········· |
| The owl and the fox crouch back with fear, | 9 | ········· |
| As wild through the wood her voice they hear,-- | 9 | ········· |
| "O my children, come home, come home! | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| O my children, come home!" | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| Who is she who shudders by | 7 | ····/˘· |
| When the boughs blow bare and the dead leaves fly? | 10 | ·········· |
| Who walks all night with her wailing cry, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| "O my children, come home!" | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| Who, strange of look, and wild of tongue, | 8 | ········ |
| With wan feet wounded and hands wild-wrung, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Sweeps on and on with her cry, far-flung,-- | 9 | ········· |
| "O my children, come home, come home! | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| O my children, come home!" | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| 'Tis the Spirit of Autumn, no man sees, | 9 | ··/·/˘··· |
| The mother of Death and of Mysteries, | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| Who cries on the wind all night to these, | 9 | ········· |
| "O my children, come home!" | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| The Spirit of Autumn, pierced with pain, | 8 | ·/·/˘··· |
| Calling her children home again, | 8 | /˘·/˘·˘/ |
| Death and Dreams, through ruin and rain,-- | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| "O my children, come home, come home! | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| O my children, come home!" | 6 | ··/˘·· |
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.