The Motriot
'It was chickens, chickens, all the way,With children crossing the road like mad;Police disguised in the hedgerows lay,Stop-watches and large white flags they had,At nine o'clock o' this very day.
'I broke the record to Tunbridge Wells,And I shouted aloud, to all concerned,"Give room, good folk, do you hear my bells?"But my motor skidded and overturned;Then exploded--and afterwards, what smells!
'Alack! it was I rode over the sonOf a butcher; rolled him all of a heap!Nought man could do did I leave undone;And I thought that butcher's boys were cheap,--But this, poor man, 'twas his only one.
'There's nobody in my motor now,--Just a tangled car in the ditch upset;For the fun of the fair is, all allow,At the County Court, or, better yet,By the very foot of the dock, I trow.
'Thus I entered, and thus I go;In Court the magistrate sternly said,"Five guineas fine, and the costs you owe!"I might not question, so promptly paid.Henceforth I walk; I am safer so.'
Words in this poem
- broke v. i.
- To transact business for another. Brome. [See Broker, and cf. Brook.]
- aloud adv.
- With a loud voice, or great noise; loudly; audibly. [Pref. a- + loud.]
- folk n.
- In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
- rode n.
- Redness; complexion. [See Rud.]
- undone a.
- Not done or performed; neglected. [Pref. un- not + done.]
- nobody n.
- No person; no one; not anybody. [No, a. + body.]
- county n.
- An earldom; the domain of a count or earl. [F. comt, fr. LL. comitatus. See Count.]
- trow v. i.
- To believe; to trust; to think or suppose. [OE. trowen, AS.treówan to trust, believe, fr. treów trust, treówe true, faithful. See True.]
- sternly adv.
- In a stern manner.
- promptly adv.
- In a prompt manner.
- henceforth adv.
- From this time forward; henceforward.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Motriot is in the public domain. This text is taken from Verse and Worse, Project Gutenberg ebook #36702; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Harry Graham, The Motriot, in Verse and Worse (1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #36702, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/graham-verse-and-worse/the-motriot.html, id L23345.
Form and metre
The Motriot is 25 lines in 5 stanzas of 5 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABA, complete in 3 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 78%).
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 ABABA wayA · madB · layA · hadB · dayA
- 2 ABABA wellsA · concernedB · bellsA · overturnedB · smellsA
- 3 ABABA sonA · heapB · undoneA · cheapB · oneA
- 4 ABAB- nowA · upsetB · allowA · yetB · trow
- 5 A-A-A goA · said · oweA · paid · soA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| 'It was chickens, chickens, all the way, | 9 | ··/˘/˘··· |
| With children crossing the road like mad; | 9 | ·/˘/˘···· |
| Police disguised in the hedgerows lay, | 10 | ˘/˘/······ |
| Stop-watches and large white flags they had, | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| At nine o'clock o' this very day. | 9 | ··˘/··/˘· |
| 'I broke the record to Tunbridge Wells, | 9 | ···˘/···· |
| And I shouted aloud, to all concerned, | 10 | ··/˘˘/··˘/ |
| "Give room, good folk, do you hear my bells?" | 9 | ········· |
| But my motor skidded and overturned; | 10 | ··/˘/˘·/˘· |
| Then exploded--and afterwards, what smells! | 9 | ·˘/˘·/˘·· |
| 'Alack! it was I rode over the son | 9 | ˘/······· |
| Of a butcher; rolled him all of a heap! | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| Nought man could do did I leave undone; | 9 | ·······˘/ |
| And I thought that butcher's boys were cheap,-- | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| But this, poor man, 'twas his only one. | 9 | ······/˘· |
| 'There's nobody in my motor now,-- | 9 | ·/····/˘· |
| Just a tangled car in the ditch upset; | 10 | ··/˘····/· |
| For the fun of the fair is, all allow, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| At the County Court, or, better yet, | 9 | ··/˘··/˘· |
| By the very foot of the dock, I trow. | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| 'Thus I entered, and thus I go; | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| In Court the magistrate sternly said, | 9 | ···/˘·/˘· |
| "Five guineas fine, and the costs you owe!" | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| I might not question, so promptly paid. | 9 | ···/˘·/˘· |
| Henceforth I walk; I am safer so.' | 9 | //····/˘· |
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.