The Wood
I walked a nut-wood’s gloom. And overheadA pigeon’s wing beat on the hidden boughs,And shrews upon shy tunnelling woke thinLate winter leaves with trickling sound. AcrossMy narrow path I saw the carrier antsBurdened with little pieces of bright straw.These things I heard and saw, with senses fineFor all the little traffic of the wood,While everywhere, above me, underfoot,And haunting every avenue of leaves,Was mystery, unresting, taciturn.
And haunting the lucidities of lifeThat are my daily beauty, moves a theme,Beating along my undiscovered mind.
Words in this poem
- underfoot adv.
- Under the feet; underneath; below. See Under foot, under Foot, n.
- avenue n.
- A way or opening for entrance into a place; a passage by which a place may by reached; a way of approach or of exit. [F. avenue, fr. avenir to come to, L. advenire. See Advene.]
- taciturn a.
- Habitually silent; not given to converse; not apt to talk or speak. [L. taciturnus: cf. F. taciturne. See Tacit.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Wood 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 Wood, in Poems, 1908-1919 (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51575, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drinkwater-poems/the-wood.html, id L23010.
Form and metre
The Wood is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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.
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I walked a nut-wood’s gloom. And overhead | 10 | ·······/˘/ |
| A pigeon’s wing beat on the hidden boughs, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| And shrews upon shy tunnelling woke thin | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| Late winter leaves with trickling sound. Across | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| My narrow path I saw the carrier ants | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Burdened with little pieces of bright straw. | 10 | /˘·/˘/˘··· |
| These things I heard and saw, with senses fine | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| For all the little traffic of the wood, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| While everywhere, above me, underfoot, | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| And haunting every avenue of leaves, | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| Was mystery, unresting, taciturn. | 10 | ·/˘˘˘/˘/˘· |
| And haunting the lucidities of life | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘˘·· |
| That are my daily beauty, moves a theme, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Beating along my undiscovered mind. | 10 | /˘˘/··˘/˘· |
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.