Trees
(“You cannot think how ghastly these battle-fields look under agrey sky. Torn trees are the most terrible things I have ever seen.Absolute blight and curse is on the face of everything.”)
THE dead land oppressed me;I turned my thoughts away,And went where hill and meadowAre shadowless and gay.
Where Coopers stands by Cranham,Where the hill-gashes whiteShow golden in the sunshine,Our sunshine--God’s delight.
Beauty my feet stayed at lastWhere green was most cool,Trees worthy of all worshipI worshipped ... then, O fool,
Let my thoughts slide unwittingTo other, dreadful trees, ...And found me standing, staringSick of heart--at these!
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- shadowless a.
- Having no shadow.
- sunshine n.
- The light of the sun, or the place where it shines; the direct rays of the sun, the place where they fall, or the warmth and light which they give.
- stayed a.
- Staid; fixed; settled; sober; -- now written staid. See Staid.
- unwitting a.
- Not knowing; unconscious; ignorant.
- dreadful a.
- Full of dread or terror; fearful.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Trees is in the public domain. This text is taken from Severn & Somme, Project Gutenberg ebook #63895; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Ivor Gurney, Trees, in Severn and Somme (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #63895, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/gurney-severn-somme/trees.html, id L02582.
Form and metre
Trees is 19 lines in 5 stanzas. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.6 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 37% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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.
- 2 -A-A me · awayA · meadow · gayA
- 3 -A-A cranham · whiteA · sunshine · delightA
- 4 -A-A last · coolA · worship · foolA
- 5 -A-A unwitting · treesA · staring · theseA
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| (“You cannot think how ghastly these battle-fields look under a | 15 | ·/˘··/˘·/˘····· |
| grey sky. Torn trees are the most terrible things I have ever seen. | 14 | ·······/˘···/· |
| Absolute blight and curse is on the face of everything.”) | 14 | /˘·········/˘· |
| THE dead land oppressed me; | 6 | ···˘/· |
| I turned my thoughts away, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| And went where hill and meadow | 7 | ·····/· |
| Are shadowless and gay. | 6 | ·/˘˘·· |
| Where Coopers stands by Cranham, | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Where the hill-gashes white | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Show golden in the sunshine, | 7 | ·/˘··/· |
| Our sunshine--God’s delight. | 7 | /˘/··˘/ |
| Beauty my feet stayed at last | 7 | /˘····· |
| Where green was most cool, | 5 | ····· |
| Trees worthy of all worship | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| I worshipped ... then, O fool, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Let my thoughts slide unwitting | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| To other, dreadful trees, ... | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| And found me standing, staring | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Sick of heart--at these! | 5 | ····· |
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.