Antagonists
Green shoots, we break the morning earthAnd flourish in the morning’s breath;We leave the agony of birthAnd soon are all midway to death.
While yet the summer of her yearBrings life her marvels, she can seeFar off the rising dust, and hearThe footfall of her enemy.
Words in this poem
- midway n.
- The middle of the way or distance; a middle way or course.
- footfall n.
- A setting down of the foot; a footstep; the sound of a footstep.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Antagonists is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, 1908-1919, Project Gutenberg ebook #51575; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Drinkwater, Antagonists, in Poems, 1908-1919 (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51575, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drinkwater-poems/antagonists.html, id L23020.
Form and metre
Antagonists is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
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 earthA · breathB · birthA · deathB
- 2 A-A- yearA · see · hearA · enemy
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Green shoots, we break the morning earth | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And flourish in the morning’s breath; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| We leave the agony of birth | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| And soon are all midway to death. | 8 | ····/··· |
| While yet the summer of her year | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Brings life her marvels, she can see | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Far off the rising dust, and hear | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The footfall of her enemy. | 8 | ·/···/˘˘ |
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.