Hyla Brook
By June our brook's run out of song and speed.Sought for much after that, it will be foundEither to have gone groping underground(And taken with it all the Hyla breedThat shouted in the mist a month ago,Like ghost of sleigh-bells in a ghost of snow)--Or flourished and come up in jewel-weed,Weak foliage that is blown upon and bentEven against the way its waters went.Its bed is left a faded paper sheetOf dead leaves stuck together by the heat--A brook to none but who remember long.This as it will be seen is other farThan with brooks taken otherwhere in song.We love the things we love for what they are.
Words in this poem
- ghost n.
- The spirit; the soul of man. [OE. gast, gost, soul, spirit, AS. gast breath, spirit, soul; akin to OS. g spirit, soul, D. geest, G. geist, and prob. to E. gaze, ghastly.]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- otherwhere adv.
- In or to some other place, or places; elsewhere.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Hyla Brook is in the public domain. This text is taken from Mountain Interval, Project Gutenberg ebook #29345; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Robert Frost, Hyla Brook, in Mountain Interval (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #29345, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/frost-mountain-interval/hyla-brook.html, id L02645.
Form and metre
Hyla Brook is 15 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBACCADDEEFGFG. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 40% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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.
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 ABBACCADDEEFGFG speedA · foundB · undergroundB · breedA · agoC · snowC · weedA · bentD · wentD · sheetE · heatE · longF · farG · songF · areG
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 |
|---|---|---|
| By June our brook's run out of song and speed. | 10 | ··/······· |
| Sought for much after that, it will be found | 10 | ·········· |
| Either to have gone groping underground | 10 | /˘···/˘/˘· |
| (And taken with it all the Hyla breed | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| That shouted in the mist a month ago, | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| Like ghost of sleigh-bells in a ghost of snow)-- | 10 | ·········· |
| Or flourished and come up in jewel-weed, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Weak foliage that is blown upon and bent | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Even against the way its waters went. | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| Its bed is left a faded paper sheet | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Of dead leaves stuck together by the heat-- | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| A brook to none but who remember long. | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| This as it will be seen is other far | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Than with brooks taken otherwhere in song. | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘·· |
| We love the things we love for what they are. | 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.