Lynchers
At the moon's down-going let it beOn the quarry hill with its one gnarled tree.
The red-rock road of the underbrush,Where the woman came through the summer hush.
The sumac high and the elder thick,Where we found the stone and the ragged stick.
The trampled road of the thicket, fullOf footprints down to the quarry pool.
The rocks that ooze with the hue of lead,Where we found her lying stark and dead.
The scraggy wood; the negro hut,With its doors and windows locked and shut.
A secret signal; a foot's rough tramp;A knock at the door; a lifted lamp.
An oath; a scuffle; a ring of masks;A voice that answers a voice that asks.
A group of shadows; the moon's red fleck;A running noose and a man's bared neck.
A word, a curse, and a shape that swings;The lonely night and a bat's black wings.
At the moon's down-going let it beOn the quarry hill with its one gnarled tree.
Words in this poem
- gnarled a.
- Knotty; full of knots or gnarls; twisted; crossgrained.
- underbrush n.
- Shrubs, small trees, and the like, in a wood or forest, growing beneath large trees; undergrowth.
- stark adv.
- Wholly; entirely; absolutely; quite; as, stark mind.
- fleck n.
- A flake; also, a lock, as of wool. J. Martin.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Lynchers 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, Lynchers, in Poems (1911), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7796, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/cawein-poems/lynchers.html, id L10938.
Form and metre
Lynchers is 22 lines in 11 stanzas of 2 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 91% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.1 syllables. 14% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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 AA beA · treeA
- 2 AA underbrushA · hushA
- 3 AA thickA · stickA
- 5 AA leadA · deadA
- 6 AA hutA · shutA
- 7 AA trampA · lampA
- 8 AA masksA · asksA
- 9 AA fleckA · neckA
- 10 AA swingsA · wingsA
- 11 AA beA · treeA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| At the moon's down-going let it be | 8 | ····/··· |
| On the quarry hill with its one gnarled tree. | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| The red-rock road of the underbrush, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Where the woman came through the summer hush. | 10 | ··/˘···/˘· |
| The sumac high and the elder thick, | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
| Where we found the stone and the ragged stick. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The trampled road of the thicket, full | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
| Of footprints down to the quarry pool. | 9 | ·/····/˘· |
| The rocks that ooze with the hue of lead, | 9 | ········· |
| Where we found her lying stark and dead. | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| The scraggy wood; the negro hut, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| With its doors and windows locked and shut. | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| A secret signal; a foot's rough tramp; | 9 | ·/˘/˘···· |
| A knock at the door; a lifted lamp. | 9 | ······/˘· |
| An oath; a scuffle; a ring of masks; | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| A voice that answers a voice that asks. | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| A group of shadows; the moon's red fleck; | 9 | ···/····· |
| A running noose and a man's bared neck. | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| A word, a curse, and a shape that swings; | 9 | ········· |
| The lonely night and a bat's black wings. | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| At the moon's down-going let it be | 8 | ····/··· |
| On the quarry hill with its one gnarled tree. | 10 | ··/˘······ |
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.