Range-Finding
The battle rent a cobweb diamond-strungAnd cut a flower beside a ground bird's nestBefore it stained a single human breast.The stricken flower bent double and so hung.And still the bird revisited her young.A butterfly its fall had dispossessedA moment sought in air his flower of rest,Then lightly stooped to it and fluttering clung.
On the bare upland pasture there had spreadO'ernight 'twixt mullein stalks a wheel of threadAnd straining cables wet with silver dew.A sudden passing bullet shook it dry.The indwelling spider ran to greet the fly,But finding nothing, sullenly withdrew.
Words in this poem
- cobweb n.
- The network spread by a spider to catch its prey. [Cob a spider + web.]
- stricken p. p.
- Struck; smitten; wounded; as, the stricken deer.
- clung a.
- Wasted away; shrunken. [Prop. p. p. fr. OE. clingen to wither. See Cling, v. i.]
- shook v. t.
- To pack, as staves, in a shook.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Range-Finding 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, Range-Finding, in Mountain Interval (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #29345, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/frost-mountain-interval/range-finding.html, id L02654.
Form and metre
Range-Finding is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 36% 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 ABBAABBA strungA · nestB · breastB · hungA · youngA · dispossessedB · restB · clungA
- 2 AABCCB spreadA · threadA · dewB · dryC · flyC · withdrewB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The battle rent a cobweb diamond-strung | 10 | ·/˘··/·/˘· |
| And cut a flower beside a ground bird's nest | 10 | ···/˘/···· |
| Before it stained a single human breast. | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| The stricken flower bent double and so hung. | 10 | ·/˘/·/˘··· |
| And still the bird revisited her young. | 10 | ····˘/˘˘·· |
| A butterfly its fall had dispossessed | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| A moment sought in air his flower of rest, | 10 | ·/˘····/·· |
| Then lightly stooped to it and fluttering clung. | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| On the bare upland pasture there had spread | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| O'ernight 'twixt mullein stalks a wheel of thread | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And straining cables wet with silver dew. | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| A sudden passing bullet shook it dry. | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| The indwelling spider ran to greet the fly, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| But finding nothing, sullenly withdrew. | 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.