Ku Klux
We have sent him seeds of the melon's core,And nailed a warning upon his door:By the Ku Klux laws we can do no more.
Down in the hollow, 'mid crib and stack,The roof of his low-porched house looms black;Not a line of light at the door-sill's crack.
Yet arm and mount! and mask and ride!The hounds can sense though the fox may hide!And for a word too much men oft have died.
The clouds blow heavy toward the moon.The edge of the storm will reach it soon.The kildee cries and the lonesome loon.
The clouds shall flush with a wilder glareThan the lightning makes with its angled flare,When the Ku Klux verdict is given there.
In the pause of the thunder rolling low,A rifle's answer--who shall knowFrom the wind's fierce hurl and the rain's black blow?
Only the signature, written grimAt the end of the message brought to him--A hempen rope and a twisted limb.
So arm and mount! and mask and ride!The hounds can sense though the fox may hide!--For a word too much men oft have died.
Words in this poem
- lonesome a.
- Secluded from society; not frequented by human beings; solitary.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- glare v. i.
- To shine with a bright, dazzling light. [OE. glaren, gloren; cf. AS. glær amber, LG. glaren to glow or burn like coals, D. gloren to glimmer; prob. akin to E. glass.]
- flare v. i.
- To burn with an unsteady or waving flame; as, the candle flares. [Cf. Norw. flara to blaze, flame, adorn with tinsel, dial. Sw. flasa upp, and E. flash, or flacker.]
- hempen a.
- Made of hemp; as, a hempen cord.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Ku Klux 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, Ku Klux, in Poems (1911), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7796, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/cawein-poems/ku-klux.html, id L10940.
Form and metre
Ku Klux is 24 lines in 8 stanzas of 3 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 67% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 78%). 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.1 syllables. 12% 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 AAA coreA · doorA · moreA
- 2 AAA stackA · blackA · crackA
- 3 AAA rideA · hideA · diedA
- 4 AAA moonA · soonA · loonA
- 5 AAA glareA · flareA · thereA
- 6 AAA lowA · knowA · blowA
- 7 AAA grimA · himA · limbA
- 8 AAA rideA · hideA · diedA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| We have sent him seeds of the melon's core, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And nailed a warning upon his door: | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| By the Ku Klux laws we can do no more. | 10 | ·········· |
| Down in the hollow, 'mid crib and stack, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| The roof of his low-porched house looms black; | 9 | ········· |
| Not a line of light at the door-sill's crack. | 10 | ·········· |
| Yet arm and mount! and mask and ride! | 8 | ········ |
| The hounds can sense though the fox may hide! | 9 | ········· |
| And for a word too much men oft have died. | 10 | ·········· |
| The clouds blow heavy toward the moon. | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| The edge of the storm will reach it soon. | 9 | ········· |
| The kildee cries and the lonesome loon. | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
| The clouds shall flush with a wilder glare | 8 | ······/· |
| Than the lightning makes with its angled flare, | 10 | ··/˘···/˘· |
| When the Ku Klux verdict is given there. | 9 | ····/˘·/· |
| In the pause of the thunder rolling low, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| A rifle's answer--who shall know | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| From the wind's fierce hurl and the rain's black blow? | 10 | ·········· |
| Only the signature, written grim | 8 | /˘·/˘/˘· |
| At the end of the message brought to him-- | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| A hempen rope and a twisted limb. | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
| So arm and mount! and mask and ride! | 8 | ········ |
| The hounds can sense though the fox may hide!-- | 9 | ········· |
| For a word too much men oft have died. | 9 | ········· |
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.