In the Woods
I was in the woods to-day,And the leaves were spinning there,Rich apparelled in decay,--In decay more wholly fairThan in life they ever were.
Gold and rich barbaric redFreakt with pale and sapless vein,Spinning, spinning, spun and spedWith a little sob of painBack to harbouring earth again.
Long in homely green they shoneThrough the summer rains and sun,Now their humbleness is gone,Now their little season run,Pomp and pageantry begun.
Sweet was life, and buoyant breath,Lovely too; but for a dayIssues from the house of deathYet more beautiful array:Hark, a whisper--“Come away.”
One by one they spin and fall,But they fall in regal pride:Dying, do they hear a callRising from an ebbless tide,And, hearing, are beatified?
Words in this poem
- barbaric a.
- Of, or from, barbarian nations; foreign; -- often with reference to barbarous nations of east. [L. barbaricus foreign, barbaric, Gr. .]
- sapless a.
- Destitute of sap; not juicy.
- homely a.
- Belonging to, or having the characteristics of, home; domestic; familiar; intimate. [From Home, n.]
- humbleness n.
- The quality of being humble; humility; meekness.
- pageantry n.
- Scenic shows or spectacles, taken collectivelly; spectacular guality; splendor.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
In the Woods 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, In the Woods, in Poems, 1908-1919 (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51575, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drinkwater-poems/in-the-woods.html, id L23086.
Form and metre
In the Woods is 25 lines in 5 stanzas of 5 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABB, complete in 3 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
See other poems in trochaic 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- dayA · thereB · decayA · fairB · were
- 2 ABABB redA · veinB · spedA · painB · againB
- 3 -A-AA shone · sunA · gone · runA · begunA
- 4 ABABB breathA · dayB · deathA · arrayB · awayB
- 5 ABABB fallA · prideB · callA · tideB · beatifiedB
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I was in the woods to-day, | 7 | ······· |
| And the leaves were spinning there, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Rich apparelled in decay,-- | 8 | ·˘/˘˘·˘/ |
| In decay more wholly fair | 7 | ·˘/·/˘· |
| Than in life they ever were. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Gold and rich barbaric red | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| Freakt with pale and sapless vein, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Spinning, spinning, spun and sped | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| With a little sob of pain | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Back to harbouring earth again. | 8 | ··/˘˘·˘/ |
| Long in homely green they shone | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Through the summer rains and sun, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Now their humbleness is gone, | 7 | ··/˘˘·· |
| Now their little season run, | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Pomp and pageantry begun. | 7 | ··/˘˘˘/ |
| Sweet was life, and buoyant breath, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Lovely too; but for a day | 7 | /˘····· |
| Issues from the house of death | 7 | /˘····· |
| Yet more beautiful array: | 7 | ··/˘˘˘/ |
| Hark, a whisper--“Come away.” | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| One by one they spin and fall, | 7 | ······· |
| But they fall in regal pride: | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Dying, do they hear a call | 7 | /˘····· |
| Rising from an ebbless tide, | 7 | /˘····· |
| And, hearing, are beatified? | 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.