Poem II
There is a booming in the forest boughs;Tremendous feet seem trampling through the trees:The storm is at his wildman revelries,And earth and heaven echo his carouse.Night reels with tumult; and, from out her houseOf cloud, the moon looks,--like a face one seesIn nightmare,--hurrying, with pale eyes that freezeStooping above with white, malignant brows.The isolated oak upon the hill,That seemed, at sunset, in terrific landsA Titan head black in a sea of blood,Now seems a monster harp, whose wild strings thrillTo the vast fingering of innumerable hands--Spirits of tempest and of solitude.
Words in this poem
- tremendous a.
- Fitted to excite fear or terror; such as may astonish or terrify by its magnitude, force, or violence; terrible; dreadful; as, a tremendous wind; a tremendous shower; a tremendous shock or fall. [L. tremendus that is to be trembled at, fearful, fr. tremere to tremble. See Tremble.]
- fingering n.
- The act or process of handling or touching with the fingers.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Poem 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, Poem II, in Poems (1911), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7796, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/cawein-poems/poem-ii.html, id L10973.
Form and metre
Poem II is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 36% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See 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 ABAA-BBACD-CD- boughsA · treesB · revelriesA · carouseA · house · seesB · freezeB · browsA · hillC · landsD · blood · thrillC · handsD · solitude
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 booming in the forest boughs; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Tremendous feet seem trampling through the trees: | 10 | ˘/˘··/˘··· |
| The storm is at his wildman revelries, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘˘ |
| And earth and heaven echo his carouse. | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Night reels with tumult; and, from out her house | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Of cloud, the moon looks,--like a face one sees | 10 | ·········· |
| In nightmare,--hurrying, with pale eyes that freeze | 10 | ·/·/˘····· |
| Stooping above with white, malignant brows. | 10 | /˘····˘/˘· |
| The isolated oak upon the hill, | 10 | ·/˘·˘····· |
| That seemed, at sunset, in terrific lands | 10 | ···/··˘/˘· |
| A Titan head black in a sea of blood, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Now seems a monster harp, whose wild strings thrill | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| To the vast fingering of innumerable hands-- | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| Spirits of tempest and of solitude. | 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.