Not Dead
Walking through trees to cool my heat and pain,I know that David's with me here again.All that is simple, happy, strong, he is.Caressingly I strokeRough hark of the friendly oak.A brook goes bubbling by: the voice is his.Turf burns with pleasant smoke;I laugh at chaffinch and at primroses.All that is simple, happy, strong, he is.Over the whole wood in a little whileBreaks his slow smile.
Words in this poem
- caressingly
- In caressing manner.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Not Dead 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, Not Dead, in Fairies and Fusiliers (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10122, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/graves-fairies/not-dead.html, id L02446.
Form and metre
Not Dead is 11 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 55% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.4 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 18% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in heroic couplets, 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 AABCCBCBBDD painA · againA · isB · strokeC · oakC · hisB · smokeC · primrosesB · isB · whileD · smileD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Walking through trees to cool my heat and pain, | 10 | /˘········ |
| I know that David's with me here again. | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| All that is simple, happy, strong, he is. | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Caressingly I stroke | 6 | ˘/˘˘·· |
| Rough hark of the friendly oak. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| A brook goes bubbling by: the voice is his. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Turf burns with pleasant smoke; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| I laugh at chaffinch and at primroses. | 10 | ···/˘··/·˘ |
| All that is simple, happy, strong, he is. | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Over the whole wood in a little while | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Breaks his slow smile. | 4 | ···· |
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.