The Riddle of Wreck
Dark hemlocks, seventy and seven,High on the hill-slope sigh in dream,With plumy heads in heaven;They silver the sunbeam.
One broken body of a tree,Stabbed through and slashed by lightning keen,Unsouled, and grim to see,Hangs o’er the hushed ravine.
A hundred masts, a hundred more,Crowd close against the sunset-fires.Their late adventure o’er,They mingle with the spires.
But one is lying prone, alone,Where gleaming gulls to seaward sweep,White sand of burial blownIn sheets about its sleep.
When lightning’s leashed, and sea is still,Ye sacrificial mysteries dread,Scapegoats of shore and hill,Your riddle may be read.
Words in this poem
- plumy a.
- Covered or adorned with plumes, or as with plumes; feathery.
- sunbeam n.
- A beam or ray of the sun. [AS. sunnebeam.]
- slashed a.
- Marked or cut with a slash or slashes; deeply gashed; especially, having long, narrow openings, as a sleeve or other part of a garment, to show rich lining or under vesture.
- seaward a.
- Directed or situated toward the sea. Donne.
- burial n.
- A grave; a tomb; a place of sepulture. [OE. buriel, buriels, grave, tomb, AS. byrgels, fr. byrgan to bury, and akin to OS. burgisli sepulcher.]
- sacrificial a.
- Of or pertaining to sacrifice or sacrifices; consisting in sacrifice; performing sacrifice.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Riddle of Wreck 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, The Riddle of Wreck, 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/the-riddle-of-wreck.html, id L22051.
Form and metre
The Riddle of Wreck is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 4 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
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 ABAB sevenA · dreamB · heavenA · sunbeamB
- 2 ABAB treeA · keenB · seeA · ravineB
- 3 -A-A more · firesA · o'er · spiresA
- 4 ABAB aloneA · sweepB · blownA · sleepB
- 5 ABAB stillA · dreadB · hillA · readB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Dark hemlocks, seventy and seven, | 9 | ·/·/˘˘·/˘ |
| High on the hill-slope sigh in dream, | 8 | ········ |
| With plumy heads in heaven; | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| They silver the sunbeam. | 6 | ·/˘·/· |
| One broken body of a tree, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Stabbed through and slashed by lightning keen, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Unsouled, and grim to see, | 6 | ······ |
| Hangs o’er the hushed ravine. | 6 | ····˘/ |
| A hundred masts, a hundred more, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Crowd close against the sunset-fires. | 9 | ·····/·/˘ |
| Their late adventure o’er, | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| They mingle with the spires. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| But one is lying prone, alone, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Where gleaming gulls to seaward sweep, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| White sand of burial blown | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| In sheets about its sleep. | 6 | ······ |
| When lightning’s leashed, and sea is still, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Ye sacrificial mysteries dread, | 9 | ··˘/˘/˘˘· |
| Scapegoats of shore and hill, | 6 | /····· |
| Your riddle may be read. | 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.