Finland
Feet and faces tingleIn that frore land:Legs wobble and go wingle,You scarce can stand.
The skies are jewelled all around,The ploughshare snaps in the iron ground,The Finn with face like paperAnd eyes like a lighted taperHurls his rough runeAt the wintry moonAnd stamps to mark the tune.
Words in this poem
- tingle v. i.
- To feel a kind of thrilling sensation, as in hearing a shrill sound. [Freq. of ting. Cf. Tinkle.]
- scarce a.
- Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
- ploughshare n.
- The share of a plow, or that part which cuts the slice of earth or sod at the bottom of the furrow. Plowshare bone (Anat.), the pygostyle.
- finn a.
- A native of Finland; one of the FinnFinns.
- rune n.
- A letter, or character, belonging to the written language of the ancient Norsemen, or Scandinavians; in a wider sense, applied to the letters of the ancient nations of Northern Europe in general. [AS. run a rune, a secret, a mystery; akin to Icel. run, OHG. & Goth. runa a secret, secret colloquy, G. & Dan. rune rune, and probably to Gr. 'ereyna^n to searc]
- wintry a.
- Suitable to winter; resembling winter, or what belongs to winter; brumal; hyemal; cold; stormy; wintery. [AS. wintrig.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Finland is in the public domain. This text is taken from Fairies and Fusiliers, Project Gutenberg ebook #10122; 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 Graves, Finland, in Fairies and Fusiliers (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10122, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/graves-fairies/finland.html, id L02419.
Form and metre
Finland is 11 lines in 2 stanzas. 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.1 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 46% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 ABAB tingleA · landB · wingleA · standB
- 2 AABBCCC aroundA · groundA · paperB · taperB · runeC · moonC · tuneC
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Feet and faces tingle | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| In that frore land: | 4 | ···· |
| Legs wobble and go wingle, | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| You scarce can stand. | 4 | ···· |
| The skies are jewelled all around, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The ploughshare snaps in the iron ground, | 8 | ·/˘···/· |
| The Finn with face like paper | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| And eyes like a lighted taper | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Hurls his rough rune | 4 | ···· |
| At the wintry moon | 5 | ··/˘· |
| And stamps to mark the tune. | 6 | ······ |
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.