The Cotswold Farmers
Sometimes the ghosts forgotten goAlong the hill-top way,And with long scythes of silver mowMeadows of moonlit hay,Until the cocks of Cotswold crowThe coming of the day.
There’s Tony Turkletob who diedWhen he could drink no more,And Uncle Heritage, the prideOf eighteen-twenty-four,And Ebenezer Barleytide,And others half a score.
They fold in phantom pens, and ploughFurrows without a share,And one will milk a faery cow,And one will stare and stare,And whistle ghostly tunes that nowAre not sung anywhere.
The moon goes down on Oakridge lea,The other world’s astir,The Cotswold farmers silentlyGo back to sepulchre,The sleeping watchdogs wake, and seeNo ghostly harvester.
Words in this poem
- moonlit a.
- Illumined by the moon.
- tony n.
- A simpleton. L'Estrange. [Abbrev. from Anthony.]
- heritage a.
- That which is inherited, or passes from heir to heir; inheritance. [OE. heritage, eritage, OF. heritage, eritage, F. héritage, fr. hériter to inherit, LL. heriditare. See Hereditable.]
- ghostly a.
- Relating to the soul; not carnal or secular; spiritual; as, a ghostly confessor. [OE. gastlich, gostlich, AS. gastlic. See Ghost.]
- astir adv.
- Stirring; in a state of activity or motion; out of bed. [Pref. a- + stir.]
- sepulchre n.
- The place in which the dead body of a human being is interred, or a place set apart for that purpose; a grave; a tomb. [OE. sepulcre, OF. sepulcre, F. sépulcre, fr. L. sepulcrum, sepulchrum, fr. sepelire to bury.]
- harvester n.
- One who harvests; a machine for cutting and gathering grain; a reaper.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Cotswold Farmers 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, The Cotswold Farmers, in Poems, 1908-1919 (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51575, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drinkwater-poems/the-cotswold-farmers.html, id L23053.
Form and metre
The Cotswold Farmers is 24 lines in 4 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABAB, complete in 3 of its 4 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 ABABAB goA · wayB · mowA · hayB · crowA · dayB
- 2 ABABAB diedA · moreB · prideA · fourB · barleytideA · scoreB
- 3 ABABAB ploughA · shareB · cowA · stareB · nowA · anywhereB
- 4 A---A- leaA · astir · silently · sepulchre · seeA · harvester
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Sometimes the ghosts forgotten go | 8 | ˘/··˘/˘· |
| Along the hill-top way, | 6 | ˘/···· |
| And with long scythes of silver mow | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Meadows of moonlit hay, | 6 | /··/·· |
| Until the cocks of Cotswold crow | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The coming of the day. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| There’s Tony Turkletob who died | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| When he could drink no more, | 6 | ······ |
| And Uncle Heritage, the pride | 8 | ·/˘/˘˘·· |
| Of eighteen-twenty-four, | 6 | ·///˘· |
| And Ebenezer Barleytide, | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| And others half a score. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| They fold in phantom pens, and plough | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Furrows without a share, | 6 | /˘···· |
| And one will milk a faery cow, | 8 | ········ |
| And one will stare and stare, | 6 | ······ |
| And whistle ghostly tunes that now | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Are not sung anywhere. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The moon goes down on Oakridge lea, | 8 | ·····/·· |
| The other world’s astir, | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| The Cotswold farmers silently | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘˘ |
| Go back to sepulchre, | 5 | ····· |
| The sleeping watchdogs wake, and see | 8 | ·/˘/···· |
| No ghostly harvester. | 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.