The Old Byway
Its rotting fence one scarcely seesThrough sumac and wild blackberries,Thick elder and the bramble-rose,Big ox-eyed daisies where the beesHang droning in repose.
The little lizards lie all dayGray on its rocks of lichen-gray;And, insect-Ariels of the sun,The butterflies make bright its way,Its path where chipmunks run.
A lyric there the redbird lifts,While, twittering, the swallow drifts'Neath wandering clouds of sleepy cream,--In which the wind makes azure rifts,--O'er dells where wood-doves dream.
The brown grasshoppers rasp and boundMid weeds and briers that hedge it round;And in its grass-grown ruts,--where stirsThe harmless snake,--mole-crickets soundTheir faery dulcimers.
At evening, when the sad west turnsTo lonely night a cheek that burns,The tree-toads in the wild-plum sing;And ghosts of long-dead flowers and fernsThe winds wake, whispering.
Words in this poem
- bramble n.
- Any plant of the genus Rubus, including the raspberry and blackberry. Hence: Any rough, prickly shrub. [OE. brembil, AS.brbramal), fr. the same root as E. broom, As. br. See Broom.]
- twittering n.
- The act of one who, or that which, twitters.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Old Byway 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, The Old Byway, in Poems (1911), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7796, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/cawein-poems/the-old-byway.html, id L10873.
Form and metre
The Old Byway is 25 lines in 5 stanzas of 5 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.6 syllables. 3 lines end 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 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 AABAB seesA · blackberriesA · roseB · beesA · reposeB
- 2 AABAB dayA · grayA · sunB · wayA · runB
- 3 AABAB liftsA · driftsA · creamB · riftsA · dreamB
- 4 AABAB boundA · roundA · stirsB · soundA · dulcimersB
- 5 AABAB turnsA · burnsA · singB · fernsA · whisperingB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Its rotting fence one scarcely sees | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Through sumac and wild blackberries, | 8 | ·/˘··/·˘ |
| Thick elder and the bramble-rose, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Big ox-eyed daisies where the bees | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Hang droning in repose. | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| The little lizards lie all day | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Gray on its rocks of lichen-gray; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And, insect-Ariels of the sun, | 8 | ·/·/˘··· |
| The butterflies make bright its way, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Its path where chipmunks run. | 6 | ······ |
| A lyric there the redbird lifts, | 8 | ·/˘··/·· |
| While, twittering, the swallow drifts | 8 | ·/˘˘·/˘· |
| 'Neath wandering clouds of sleepy cream,-- | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| In which the wind makes azure rifts,-- | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| O'er dells where wood-doves dream. | 6 | ······ |
| The brown grasshoppers rasp and bound | 8 | ··/·˘··· |
| Mid weeds and briers that hedge it round; | 8 | ···/···· |
| And in its grass-grown ruts,--where stirs | 8 | ········ |
| The harmless snake,--mole-crickets sound | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Their faery dulcimers. | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| At evening, when the sad west turns | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| To lonely night a cheek that burns, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The tree-toads in the wild-plum sing; | 8 | ········ |
| And ghosts of long-dead flowers and ferns | 8 | ·····/·· |
| The winds wake, whispering. | 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.