Myfanwy Among the Leaves
Dying leaf and dead leaf,Yellow leaf and red leafAnd white-backed beam,Lay along the woodland roadAs quiet as a dream.
Summer was over,The year had lost her lover,Spent with her griefAll along the woodland roadLeaf fell on leaf.
Then came a shuffling,Such a happy rufflingOf the dried sweetSurf of leaves upon the roadRound a baby’s feet.
Year-old leaf ran afterThree-year-old laughter,Danced through the airAs she caught them from the roadAnd flung them anywhere.
Old leaf and cold leaf,Brown leaf and gold leafAnd white-backed beam,Followed down the woodland roadMyfanwy in a dream.
About this text
Myfanwy Among the Leaves is in the public domain. This text is taken from Sonnets and Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #56244; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Eleanor Farjeon, Myfanwy Among the Leaves, in Sonnets and Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56244, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/farjeon-sonnets-poems/myfanwy-among-the-leaves.html, id L21971.
Form and metre
Myfanwy Among the Leaves is 25 lines in 5 stanzas of 5 lines each. The metre is trochaic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
See other poems in trochaic trimeter.
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 AAB-B leafA · leafA · beamB · road · dreamB
- 2 --A-A over · lover · griefA · road · leafA
- 3 AAB-B shufflingA · rufflingA · sweetB · road · feetB
- 4 AAB-B afterA · laughterA · airB · road · anywhereB
- 5 AAB-B leafA · leafA · beamB · road · dreamB
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Dying leaf and dead leaf, | 6 | /˘···· |
| Yellow leaf and red leaf | 6 | /˘···· |
| And white-backed beam, | 4 | ···· |
| Lay along the woodland road | 7 | ·˘/·/·· |
| As quiet as a dream. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Summer was over, | 5 | /˘··· |
| The year had lost her lover, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Spent with her grief | 4 | ···· |
| All along the woodland road | 7 | ·˘/·/·· |
| Leaf fell on leaf. | 4 | ···· |
| Then came a shuffling, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Such a happy ruffling | 7 | ··/˘/˘˘ |
| Of the dried sweet | 4 | ···· |
| Surf of leaves upon the road | 7 | ······· |
| Round a baby’s feet. | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Year-old leaf ran after | 6 | ······ |
| Three-year-old laughter, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Danced through the air | 4 | ···· |
| As she caught them from the road | 7 | ······· |
| And flung them anywhere. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Old leaf and cold leaf, | 5 | ····· |
| Brown leaf and gold leaf | 5 | ····· |
| And white-backed beam, | 4 | ···· |
| Followed down the woodland road | 8 | /˘˘··/˘· |
| Myfanwy in a dream. | 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.