“As the Crow Flies”
Buccaneer with blackest sails,Steering home by compass true,Now that all the rich West palesFrom its ingot-hue!
Would that compass in thy breastThou couldst lend, for guiding meWhere my Hope hath made her nest--In how far a tree!
Swerving not, nor stooping low,To that dear, that distant markCould I undiverted go,What were coming dark?
--Careless of the twilight ground,O’er the wood and o’er the streamStill he sails, with hollow soundStrange, as in a dream!
Words in this poem
- buccaneer n.
- A robber upon the sea; a pirate; -- a term applied especially to the piratical adventurers who made depredations on the Spaniards in America in the 17th and 18th centuries. [F. boucanier, fr. boucaner to smoke or broil meat and fish, to hunt wild beasts for their skins, boucan a smoking place for meat or fish, gridiron for smoking: ]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
“As the Crow Flies” is in the public domain. This text is taken from A chant of love for England, and other poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #71425; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Helen Gray Cone, “As the Crow Flies”, in A Chant of Love for England, and Other Poems (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #71425, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/cone-chant-for-england/as-the-crow-flies.html, id L22078.
Form and metre
“As the Crow Flies” is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
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 ABAB sailsA · trueB · palesA · hueB
- 2 ABAB breastA · meB · nestA · treeB
- 3 ABAB lowA · markB · goA · darkB
- 4 ABAB groundA · streamB · soundA · dreamB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Buccaneer with blackest sails, | 7 | ·˘/·/˘· |
| Steering home by compass true, | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Now that all the rich West pales | 7 | ······· |
| From its ingot-hue! | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Would that compass in thy breast | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Thou couldst lend, for guiding me | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Where my Hope hath made her nest-- | 7 | ······· |
| In how far a tree! | 5 | ····· |
| Swerving not, nor stooping low, | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| To that dear, that distant mark | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Could I undiverted go, | 7 | ······· |
| What were coming dark? | 5 | ··/˘· |
| --Careless of the twilight ground, | 7 | /˘··/·· |
| O’er the wood and o’er the stream | 7 | ······· |
| Still he sails, with hollow sound | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Strange, as in a dream! | 5 | ····· |
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.