The poplars look beyond the wall
The poplars look beyond the wallWith bending hair, and to me call,Curving shivering hands to meWhispering what they can see:Of a dim and silent wayThrough a valley white with may.On either hand gossiping beechesStir against the lilac reachesHalf of earth and half of sky;There the aspens quakinglyGather in excited bands,The dappled birches' fluttering handsCast their swift and silver lightThrough the glade spun greenish white.
So alone I follow onWhere slowly piping Pan has goneTo draw the quiet browsing flocks,While a blackbird calls and knocksAt noon across the dusty downsIn quivering peace, until Pan soundsHis piping gently to the bird,And saving this no sound is heard.Now the blackbirds' gold wired throatsSpill their long cool mellow notes;In solemn flocks slowly wheelingIntricately, without revealingTheir desires, as on blue spaceThey thread and cross like folds of laceWoven black; then shrilling goLike shutters swinging to and fro.
Words in this poem
- quakingly adv.
- In a quaking manner; fearfully. Sir P. Sidney.
- dappled a.
- Marked with spots of different shades of color; spotted; variegated; as, a dapple horse.
- glade n.
- An open passage through a wood; a grassy open or cleared space in a forest. [Prob. of Scand. origin, and akin to glad, a.; cf. also W. golead, goleuad, a lighting, illumination, fr. goleu light, clear, bright, goleu fwlch glade, lit., a ]
- piping a.
- Playing on a musical pipe. [From Pipe, v.]
- browsing n.
- Browse; also, a place abounding with shrubs where animals may browse.
- spill n.
- A bit of wood split off; a splinter. [sq. root170. Cf. Spell a splinter.]
- wheeling n.
- The act of conveying anything, or traveling, on wheels, or in a wheeled vehicle.
- intricately adv.
- In an intricate manner.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The poplars look beyond the wall is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Marble Faun, Wikisource; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Faulkner, The poplars look beyond the wall, in The Marble Faun (1924), text of Wikisource, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/faulkner-marble-faun/section-4.html, id L28616.
Form and metre
The poplars look beyond the wall is 30 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
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 AABBCCDDEEFFGG wallA · callA · meB · seeB · wayC · mayC · beechesD · reachesD · skyE · quakinglyE · bandsF · handsF · lightG · whiteG
- 2 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHH onA · goneA · flocksB · knocksB · downsC · soundsC · birdD · heardD · throatsE · notesE · wheelingF · revealingF · spaceG · laceG · goH · froH
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The poplars look beyond the wall | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| With bending hair, and to me call, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Curving shivering hands to me | 8 | /˘/˘˘··· |
| Whispering what they can see: | 7 | /˘˘···· |
| Of a dim and silent way | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Through a valley white with may. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| On either hand gossiping beeches | 9 | ·/˘·/˘˘/˘ |
| Stir against the lilac reaches | 8 | ····/·/˘ |
| Half of earth and half of sky; | 7 | ······· |
| There the aspens quakingly | 7 | ··/˘/˘˘ |
| Gather in excited bands, | 7 | /˘·˘/˘· |
| The dappled birches' fluttering hands | 8 | ····/˘˘· |
| Cast their swift and silver light | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Through the glade spun greenish white. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| So alone I follow on | 7 | ·˘/·/˘· |
| Where slowly piping Pan has gone | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| To draw the quiet browsing flocks, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| While a blackbird calls and knocks | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| At noon across the dusty downs | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| In quivering peace, until Pan sounds | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| His piping gently to the bird, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| And saving this no sound is heard. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Now the blackbirds' gold wired throats | 8 | ··/˘·/˘· |
| Spill their long cool mellow notes; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| In solemn flocks slowly wheeling | 8 | ·/˘·/˘/˘ |
| Intricately, without revealing | 9 | /˘˘˘··˘/˘ |
| Their desires, as on blue space | 8 | ·˘/˘···· |
| They thread and cross like folds of lace | 8 | ········ |
| Woven black; then shrilling go | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Like shutters swinging to and fro. | 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.