The Bindweed
The bindweed roots pierce downDeeper than men do lie,Laid in their dark-shut gravesTheir slumbering kinsmen by.
Yet what frail thin-spun flowersShe casts into the air,To breathe the sunshine, andTo leave her fragrance there.
But when the sweet moon comes,Showering her silver down,Half-wreathèd in faint sleep,They droop where they have blown.
So all the grass is set,Beneath her trembling ray,With buds that have been flowers,Brimmed with reflected day.
Words in this poem
- sunshine n.
- The light of the sun, or the place where it shines; the direct rays of the sun, the place where they fall, or the warmth and light which they give.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Bindweed is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Listeners and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #22569; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Walter de la Mare, The Bindweed, in The Listeners and Other Poems (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22569, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/de-la-mare-listeners/the-bindweed.html, id L17076.
Form and metre
The Bindweed is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.1 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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 -A-A down · lieA · graves · byA
- 2 -A-A flowers · airA · and · thereA
- 4 -A-A set · rayA · flowers · dayA
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The bindweed roots pierce down | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Deeper than men do lie, | 6 | /˘···· |
| Laid in their dark-shut graves | 6 | ······ |
| Their slumbering kinsmen by. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Yet what frail thin-spun flowers | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| She casts into the air, | 6 | ······ |
| To breathe the sunshine, and | 6 | ···/·· |
| To leave her fragrance there. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| But when the sweet moon comes, | 6 | ······ |
| Showering her silver down, | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| Half-wreathèd in faint sleep, | 5 | ····· |
| They droop where they have blown. | 6 | ······ |
| So all the grass is set, | 6 | ······ |
| Beneath her trembling ray, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| With buds that have been flowers, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Brimmed with reflected day. | 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.