In Arcady
I remember, when a child,How within the April wildOnce I walked with MysteryIn the groves of Arcady....Through the boughs, before, behind,Swept the mantle of the wind,Thunderous and unconfined.
Overhead the curving moonPierced the twilight: a cocoon,Golden, big with unborn wings--Beauty, shaping spiritual things,Vague, impatient of the night,Eager for its heavenward flightOut of darkness into light.
Here and there the oaks assumedSatyr aspects; shadows gloomed,Hiding, of a dryad look;And the naiad-frantic brook,Crying, fled the solitude,Filled with terror of the wood,Or some faun-thing that pursued.
In the dead leaves on the groundCrept a movement; rose a sound:Everywhere the silence tickedAs with hands of things that pickedAt the loam, or in the dew,--Elvish sounds that crept or flew,--Beak-like, pushing surely through.
Down the forest, overhead,Stammering a dead leaf fled,Filled with elemental fearOf some dark destruction near--One, whose glowworm eyes I sawHag with flame the crooked haw,Which the moon clutched like a claw.
Gradually beneath the treeGrew a shape; a nudity:Lithe and slender; silent asGrowth of tree or blade of grass;Brown and silken as the bloomOf the trillium in the gloom,Visible as strange perfume.
For an instant there it stood,Smiling on me in the wood:And I saw its hair was greenAs the leaf-sheath, gold of sheen:And its eyes an azure wet,From within which seemed to jetSapphire lights and violet.
Swiftly by I saw it glide;And the dark was deified:Wild before it everywhereGleamed the greenness of its hair;And around it danced a light,Soft, the sapphire of its sight,Making witchcraft of the night.
On the branch above, the birdTrilled to it a dreamy word:In its bud the wild bee dronedHoneyed greeting, drowsy-toned:And the brook forgot the gloom,Hushed its heart, and, wrapped in bloom,Breathed a welcome of perfume.
To its beauty bush and treeStretched sweet arms of ecstasy;And the soul within the rockLichen-treasures did unlockAs upon it fell its eye;And the earth, that felt it nigh,Into wildflowers seemed to sigh....
Was it dryad? was it faun?Wandered from the times long gone.Was it sylvan? was it fay?--Dim survivor of the dayWhen Religion peopled streams,Woods and rocks with shapes like gleams,--That invaded then my dreams?
Was it shadow? was it shape?Or but fancy's wild escape?--Of my own child's world the charmThat assumed material form?--Of my soul the mystery,That the spring revealed to me,There in long-lost Arcady?
Words in this poem 17
- thunderous a.
- Producing thunder. [Written also thundrous.]
- unborn a.
- Not born; no yet brought into life; being still to appear; future.
- satyr n.
- A sylvan deity or demigod, represented as part man and part goat, and characterized by riotous merriment and lasciviousness. [L. satyrus, Gr. satyre.]
- dryad n.
- A wood nymph; a nymph whose life was bound up with that of her tree. [L. dryas, pl. dryades, Gr. Tree.]
- naiad n.
- A water nymph; one of the lower female divinities, fabled to preside over some body of fresh water, as a lake, river, brook, or fountain. [L. naias, -adis, naïs, -idis, a water nymph, Gr naïade. Cf. Naid.]
- faun n.
- A god of fields and shipherds, diddering little from the satyr. [L. Faunus, fr. favere to be favorable. See Favor.]
- elvish a.
- Pertaining to elves; implike; mischievous; weird; also, vacant; absent in demeanor. See Elfish.
- glowworm n.
- A coleopterous insect of the genus Lampyris; esp., the wingless females and larvæ of the two European species (L. noctiluca, and L.
- nudity n.
- The quality or state of being nude; nakedness. [Cf. F. nudité .]
- lithe v. i.
- To listen or listen to; to hearken to. P. Plowman. [Icel Listen.]
- trillium n.
- A genus of liliaceous plants; the three-leaved nightshade; -- so called because all the parts of the plant are in threes. [NL.; cf. L. trilix triple-woven, triple.]
- sheen v. i.
- To shine; to glisten.
- dreamy a.
- Abounding in dreams or given to dreaming; appropriate to, or like, dreams; visionary.
- honeyed a.
- Covered with honey.
- unlock v. t.
- To unfasten, as what is locked; as, to unlock a door or a chest. [Cf. AS. unl. See 1st Un-, and Lock, v. t.]
- survivor n.
- One who survives or outlives another person, or any time, event, or thing.
- peopled a.
- Stocked with, or as with, people; inhabited.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
In Arcady 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, In Arcady, in Poems (1911), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7796, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/cawein-poems/in-arcady.html, id L10961.
Form and metre
In Arcady is 84 lines in 12 stanzas of 7 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABBCCC, complete in 7 of its 12 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.4 syllables. 12 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 27% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See 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 AA--BBB childA · wildA · mystery · arcady · behindB · windB · unconfinedB
- 2 AABBCCC moonA · cocoonA · wingsB · thingsB · nightC · flightC · lightC
- 3 AABBC-C assumedA · gloomedA · lookB · brookB · solitudeC · wood · pursuedC
- 4 AABBCCC groundA · soundA · tickedB · pickedB · dewC · flewC · throughC
- 5 AABBCCC overheadA · fledA · fearB · nearB · sawC · hawC · clawC
- 6 ----AAA tree · nudity · as · grass · bloomA · gloomA · perfumeA
- 7 AABBCCC stoodA · woodA · greenB · sheenB · wetC · jetC · violetC
- 8 AABBCCC glideA · deifiedA · everywhereB · hairB · lightC · sightC · nightC
- 9 AABBCCC birdA · wordA · dronedB · tonedB · gloomC · bloomC · perfumeC
- 10 A-BBAAA treeA · ecstasy · rockB · unlockB · eyeA · nighA · sighA
- 11 AABBCCC faunA · goneA · fayB · dayB · streamsC · gleamsC · dreamsC
- 12 AA----- shapeA · escapeA · charm · form · mystery · me · arcady
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I remember, when a child, | 7 | ·˘/˘··· |
| How within the April wild | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Once I walked with Mystery | 8 | ···˘·/˘˘ |
| In the groves of Arcady.... | 7 | ······· |
| Through the boughs, before, behind, | 7 | ······· |
| Swept the mantle of the wind, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Thunderous and unconfined. | 8 | /˘˘··˘/˘ |
| Overhead the curving moon | 7 | /˘/·/˘· |
| Pierced the twilight: a cocoon, | 8 | ·˘·/··˘/ |
| Golden, big with unborn wings-- | 7 | /˘··//· |
| Beauty, shaping spiritual things, | 8 | /˘/˘/˘˘· |
| Vague, impatient of the night, | 7 | ·˘/˘··· |
| Eager for its heavenward flight | 8 | /˘··/˘˘· |
| Out of darkness into light. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Here and there the oaks assumed | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| Satyr aspects; shadows gloomed, | 8 | /˘/·/··˘ |
| Hiding, of a dryad look; | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| And the naiad-frantic brook, | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Crying, fled the solitude, | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Filled with terror of the wood, | 8 | ·˘·/˘··· |
| Or some faun-thing that pursued. | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| In the dead leaves on the ground | 7 | ······· |
| Crept a movement; rose a sound: | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Everywhere the silence ticked | 8 | /˘··/˘·˘ |
| As with hands of things that picked | 8 | ·······˘ |
| At the loam, or in the dew,-- | 7 | ······· |
| Elvish sounds that crept or flew,-- | 7 | /˘····· |
| Beak-like, pushing surely through. | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Down the forest, overhead, | 7 | ··/˘/˘/ |
| Stammering a dead leaf fled, | 7 | /˘˘···· |
| Filled with elemental fear | 8 | ·˘··˘/˘· |
| Of some dark destruction near-- | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| One, whose glowworm eyes I saw | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Hag with flame the crooked haw, | 8 | ····/˘˘· |
| Which the moon clutched like a claw. | 8 | ····˘··· |
| Gradually beneath the tree | 8 | /˘˘˘···· |
| Grew a shape; a nudity: | 7 | ····/˘˘ |
| Lithe and slender; silent as | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Growth of tree or blade of grass; | 7 | ······· |
| Brown and silken as the bloom | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Of the trillium in the gloom, | 8 | ··/˘˘··· |
| Visible as strange perfume. | 7 | /˘˘··˘/ |
| For an instant there it stood, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Smiling on me in the wood: | 7 | /˘····· |
| And I saw its hair was green | 7 | ······· |
| As the leaf-sheath, gold of sheen: | 7 | ······· |
| And its eyes an azure wet, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| From within which seemed to jet | 8 | ·····˘·· |
| Sapphire lights and violet. | 8 | /˘˘··/˘˘ |
| Swiftly by I saw it glide; | 7 | /˘····· |
| And the dark was deified: | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Wild before it everywhere | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Gleamed the greenness of its hair; | 8 | ·˘·/˘··· |
| And around it danced a light, | 8 | ·····˘·· |
| Soft, the sapphire of its sight, | 8 | ··/˘˘··· |
| Making witchcraft of the night. | 7 | /˘/···· |
| On the branch above, the bird | 7 | ······· |
| Trilled to it a dreamy word: | 8 | ·˘···/˘· |
| In its bud the wild bee droned | 8 | ·······˘ |
| Honeyed greeting, drowsy-toned: | 8 | /˘˘/˘/˘· |
| And the brook forgot the gloom, | 7 | ···˘/·· |
| Hushed its heart, and, wrapped in bloom, | 8 | ·˘······ |
| Breathed a welcome of perfume. | 8 | ·˘·/˘·˘/ |
| To its beauty bush and tree | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Stretched sweet arms of ecstasy; | 8 | ·˘···/˘˘ |
| And the soul within the rock | 7 | ······· |
| Lichen-treasures did unlock | 7 | /˘/˘·˘/ |
| As upon it fell its eye; | 7 | ······· |
| And the earth, that felt it nigh, | 7 | ······· |
| Into wildflowers seemed to sigh.... | 8 | ··/··˘·· |
| Was it dryad? was it faun? | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Wandered from the times long gone. | 8 | /˘˘····· |
| Was it sylvan? was it fay?-- | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Dim survivor of the day | 7 | ·˘/˘··· |
| When Religion peopled streams, | 8 | ·˘/˘/˘˘· |
| Woods and rocks with shapes like gleams,-- | 7 | ······· |
| That invaded then my dreams? | 7 | ·˘/˘··· |
| Was it shadow? was it shape? | 7 | ··/···· |
| Or but fancy's wild escape?-- | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| Of my own child's world the charm | 7 | ······· |
| That assumed material form?-- | 8 | ·˘/˘/˘˘· |
| Of my soul the mystery, | 7 | ····/˘˘ |
| That the spring revealed to me, | 8 | ···˘/˘·· |
| There in long-lost Arcady? | 7 | ······· |
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.