Song of Enchantment
A Song of Enchantment I sang me there,In a green --green wood, by waters fair,Just as the words came up to meI sang it under the wildwood tree.
Widdershins turned I, singing it low,Watching the wild birds come and go;No cloud in the deep dark blue to be seenUnder the thick-thatched branches green.
Twilight came; silence came;The planet of Evening's silver flame;By darkening paths I wandered throughThickets trembling with drops of dew.
But the music is lost and the words are goneOf the song I sang as I sat alone,Ages and ages have fallen on me--On the wood and the pool and the elder tree.
Words in this poem
- wildwood n.
- A wild or unfrequented wood. Also used adjectively; as, wildwood flowers; wildwood echoes. Burns.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Song of Enchantment is in the public domain. This text is taken from Peacock Pie, a Book of Rhymes, Project Gutenberg ebook #3753; 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, Song of Enchantment, in Peacock Pie (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3753, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/de-la-mare-peacock-pie/song-of-enchantment.html, id L12632.
Form and metre
Song of Enchantment is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is trochaic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 71%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.0 syllables. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic 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 AABB thereA · fairA · meB · treeB
- 2 AABB lowA · goA · seenB · greenB
- 3 AABB cameA · flameA · throughB · dewB
- 4 --AA gone · alone · meA · treeA
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| A Song of Enchantment I sang me there, | 10 | ···˘/˘···· |
| In a green --green wood, by waters fair, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Just as the words came up to me | 8 | ········ |
| I sang it under the wildwood tree. | 9 | ······/·· |
| Widdershins turned I, singing it low, | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| Watching the wild birds come and go; | 8 | /˘······ |
| No cloud in the deep dark blue to be seen | 10 | ·········· |
| Under the thick-thatched branches green. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Twilight came; silence came; | 6 | /··/˘· |
| The planet of Evening's silver flame; | 9 | ·/˘·/˘/˘· |
| By darkening paths I wandered through | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Thickets trembling with drops of dew. | 8 | /˘/˘···· |
| But the music is lost and the words are gone | 11 | ··/˘······· |
| Of the song I sang as I sat alone, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Ages and ages have fallen on me-- | 10 | /˘·/˘·/˘·· |
| On the wood and the pool and the elder tree. | 11 | ········/˘· |
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.