On the Snow
I knew no woman, child, or manHad been before my steps to-day.By Dippel Woods the snow-lanes ranSoft and uncrushed above their clay;But little starry feet had tracedTheir passages as though in words,And all those lanes of snow were lacedWith runnings of departed birds.
Words in this poem
- starry a.
- Abounding with stars; adorned with stars.
- laced a.
- Fastened with a lace or laces; decorated with narrow strips or braid. See Lace, v. t.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
On the Snow 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, On the Snow, in Sonnets and Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56244, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/farjeon-sonnets-poems/on-the-snow.html, id L21986.
Form and metre
On the Snow is 8 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCD. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
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 manA · dayB · ranA · clayB · tracedC · wordsD · lacedC · birdsD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I knew no woman, child, or man | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Had been before my steps to-day. | 8 | ········ |
| By Dippel Woods the snow-lanes ran | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Soft and uncrushed above their clay; | 8 | ········ |
| But little starry feet had traced | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Their passages as though in words, | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| And all those lanes of snow were laced | 8 | ········ |
| With runnings of departed birds. | 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.