Comradery
With eyes hand-arched he looks intoThe morning's face; then turns awayWith truant feet, all wet with dew,Out for a holiday.
The hill brook sings; incessant stars,Foam-fashioned, on its restless breast;And where he wades its water-barsIts song is happiest.
A comrade of the chinquapin,He looks into its knotty eyesAnd sees its heart; and, deep within,Its soul that makes him wise.
The wood-thrush knows and follows him,Who whistles up the birds and bees;And round him all the perfumes swimOf woodland loam and trees.
Where'er he pass the silvery springs'Foam-people sing the flowers awake;And sappy lips of bark-clad thingsLaugh ripe each berried brake.
His touch is a companionship;His word an old authority:He comes, a lyric on his lip,The woodboy--Poesy.
Words in this poem
- chinquapin n.
- A branching, nut-bearing tree or shrub (Castanea pumila) of North America, from six to twenty feet high, allied to the chestnut.
- sappy a.
- Musty; tainted. [Cf. L. sapere to taste.]
- clad v.
- To clothe. Holland.
- berried a.
- Furnished with berries; consisting of a berry; baccate; as, a berried shrub.
- poesy n.
- The art of composing poems; poetical skill or faculty; as, the heavenly gift of poesy. [F. poésie (cf. It. poesia), L. poesis, from Gr. Posy.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Comradery 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, Comradery, in Poems (1911), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7796, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/cawein-poems/comradery.html, id L10914.
Form and metre
Comradery is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 4 of its 6 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.5 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 ABAB intoA · awayB · dewA · holidayB
- 2 ABAB starsA · breastB · barsA · happiestB
- 3 -A-A chinquapin · eyesA · within · wiseA
- 4 ABAB himA · beesB · swimA · treesB
- 5 ABAB springsA · awakeB · thingsA · brakeB
- 6 A-A- companionshipA · authority · lipA · poesy
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 |
|---|---|---|
| With eyes hand-arched he looks into | 8 | ········ |
| The morning's face; then turns away | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| With truant feet, all wet with dew, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Out for a holiday. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The hill brook sings; incessant stars, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Foam-fashioned, on its restless breast; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And where he wades its water-bars | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Its song is happiest. | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| A comrade of the chinquapin, | 8 | ·/···/˘˘ |
| He looks into its knotty eyes | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And sees its heart; and, deep within, | 8 | ········ |
| Its soul that makes him wise. | 6 | ······ |
| The wood-thrush knows and follows him, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Who whistles up the birds and bees; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And round him all the perfumes swim | 8 | ·····˘/· |
| Of woodland loam and trees. | 6 | ·/···· |
| Where'er he pass the silvery springs' | 9 | ˘˘/···/˘· |
| Foam-people sing the flowers awake; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘/ |
| And sappy lips of bark-clad things | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Laugh ripe each berried brake. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| His touch is a companionship; | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| His word an old authority: | 8 | ····˘/˘˘ |
| He comes, a lyric on his lip, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The woodboy--Poesy. | 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.