Millers Dale
Barefoot we went by Millers DaleWhen meadowsweet was golden gloomAnd happy love was in the valeSinging upon the summer bloomOf gipsy crop and branches laidOf willows over chanting pools,Barefoot by Millers Dale we madeOur summer festival of fools.
Folly bright-eyed, and quick, and youngWas there with all his silly plots,And trotty wagtail stepped amongThe delicate forget-me-nots,And laughter played with us aboveThe rocky shelves and weeded holesAnd we had fellowship to loveThe pigeons and the water-voles.
Time soon shall be when we are allStiller than ever runs the Wye,And every bitterness shall fallTo-morrow in obscurity,And wars be done, and treasons fail,Yet shall new friends go down to greetThe singing rocks of Millers Dale,And willow pools and meadowsweet.
Words in this poem
- barefoot a.
- With the feet bare; without shoes or stockings.
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- vale n.
- A tract of low ground, or of land between hills; a valley. [OE. val, F. val, L. vallis; perhaps akin to Gr. Avalanche, Vail to lower, Valley.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- stiller n.
- One who stills, or quiets.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Millers Dale 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, Millers Dale, in Poems, 1908-1919 (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51575, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drinkwater-poems/millers-dale.html, id L23092.
Form and metre
Millers Dale is 24 lines in 3 stanzas of 8 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABCDCD, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
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 ABABCDCD daleA · gloomB · valeA · bloomB · laidC · poolsD · madeC · foolsD
- 2 ABABCDCD youngA · plotsB · amongA · notsB · aboveC · holesD · loveC · volesD
- 3 A-A-BCBC allA · wye · fallA · obscurity · failB · greetC · daleB · meadowsweetC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Barefoot we went by Millers Dale | 8 | /····/˘· |
| When meadowsweet was golden gloom | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And happy love was in the vale | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Singing upon the summer bloom | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| Of gipsy crop and branches laid | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Of willows over chanting pools, | 8 | ·/···/˘· |
| Barefoot by Millers Dale we made | 8 | /··/˘··· |
| Our summer festival of fools. | 8 | //˘/˘˘·· |
| Folly bright-eyed, and quick, and young | 8 | /˘······ |
| Was there with all his silly plots, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And trotty wagtail stepped among | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The delicate forget-me-nots, | 8 | ·/˘˘˘/·· |
| And laughter played with us above | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The rocky shelves and weeded holes | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And we had fellowship to love | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The pigeons and the water-voles. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Time soon shall be when we are all | 8 | ········ |
| Stiller than ever runs the Wye, | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| And every bitterness shall fall | 8 | ·/˘/˘˘·· |
| To-morrow in obscurity, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘˘ |
| And wars be done, and treasons fail, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Yet shall new friends go down to greet | 8 | ········ |
| The singing rocks of Millers Dale, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And willow pools and meadowsweet. | 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.