Field and Forest Call II
There is a forest, lying 'twixt two streams,Sung through of birds and haunted of dim dreams;That in its league-long hand of trunk and leafLifts a green wand that charms away all grief;Wrought of quaint silence and the stealth of things,Vague, whispering' touches, gleams and twitterings,Dews and cool shadows--that the mystic soulOf Nature permeates with suave control,And waves o'er Earth to make the sad heart whole.There lies the road, they say--Come away! come away!
Words in this poem
- haunted a.
- Inhabited by, or subject to the visits of, apparitions; frequented by a ghost.
- quaint a.
- Prudent; wise; hence, crafty; artful; wily. [OE. queint, queynte, coint, prudent, wise, cunning, pretty, odd, OF. cointe cultivated, amiable, agreeable, neat, fr. L. cognitus known, p. p. of cognoscere to ]
- stealth n.
- The act of stealing; theft. [OE. staple. See Steal, v. t.]
- suave a.
- Sweet; pleasant; delightful; gracious or agreeable in manner; bland. [L. suavis sweet, pleasant: cf. F. suave. See Sweet, and cf. Suasion.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Field and Forest Call II 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, Field and Forest Call II, in Poems (1911), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7796, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/cawein-poems/field-and-forest-call-ii.html, id L10879.
Form and metre
Field and Forest Call II is 11 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 73% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.3 syllables. 18% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in heroic couplets, 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 AABBCCDDDEE streamsA · dreamsA · leafB · griefB · thingsC · twitteringsC · soulD · controlD · wholeD · sayE · awayE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| There is a forest, lying 'twixt two streams, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Sung through of birds and haunted of dim dreams; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| That in its league-long hand of trunk and leaf | 10 | ·········· |
| Lifts a green wand that charms away all grief; | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Wrought of quaint silence and the stealth of things, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Vague, whispering' touches, gleams and twitterings, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Dews and cool shadows--that the mystic soul | 10 | ···/···/˘· |
| Of Nature permeates with suave control, | 10 | ·/˘/˘···˘/ |
| And waves o'er Earth to make the sad heart whole. | 10 | ·········· |
| There lies the road, they say-- | 6 | ······ |
| Come away! come away! | 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.