'Sooeep!'
Black as a chimney is his face,And ivory white his teeth,And in his brass-bound cart he rides,The chestnut blooms beneath.
'Sooeep, Sooeep!' he cries, and brightly peersThis way and that, to seeWith his two light-blue shining eyesWhat custom there may be.
And once inside the house, he'll squat,And drive his rods on high,Till twirls his sudden sooty brushAgainst the morning sky.
Then, 'mid his bulging bags of soot,With half the world asleep,His small cart wheels him off again,Still hoarsely bawling, 'Sooeep!'
Words in this poem
- chimney n.
- A fireplace or hearth. Sir W. Raleigh.
- hoarsely adv.
- With a harsh, grating sound or voice.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
'Sooeep!' 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, 'Sooeep!', in Peacock Pie (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3753, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/de-la-mare-peacock-pie/sooeep.html, id L18584.
Form and metre
'Sooeep!' is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.0 syllables. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in common measure.
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 face · teethA · rides · beneathA
- 2 -A-A peers · seeA · eyes · beA
- 3 -A-A squat · highA · brush · skyA
- 4 -A-A soot · asleepA · again · sooeepA
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Black as a chimney is his face, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And ivory white his teeth, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And in his brass-bound cart he rides, | 8 | ········ |
| The chestnut blooms beneath. | 6 | ·/···· |
| 'Sooeep, Sooeep!' he cries, and brightly peers | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| This way and that, to see | 6 | ······ |
| With his two light-blue shining eyes | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| What custom there may be. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And once inside the house, he'll squat, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| And drive his rods on high, | 6 | ······ |
| Till twirls his sudden sooty brush | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Against the morning sky. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Then, 'mid his bulging bags of soot, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| With half the world asleep, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| His small cart wheels him off again, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Still hoarsely bawling, 'Sooeep!' | 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.