Poem X
IN the meadows by the Avon,Underneath the slope of Bredon,There we often used to wander,My girl and I.
All around the thrushes singing,And on Sunday, church bells ringing,Overhead the soft clouds floating,White in the sky.
Still the waters of the AvonFlow so gently under Bredon,And on Sunday bells be ringing,Clouds floating high.
But I’m sick at heart and lonely,Nothing here has changed, save onlyJust we two, who once were courting,My girl and I.
About this text
Poem X is in the public domain. This text is taken from Songs of Three Counties, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #50591; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Radclyffe Hall, Poem X, in Songs of Three Counties, and Other Poems (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #50591, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hall-three-counties/poem-x.html, id L26153.
Form and metre
Poem X is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each.
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 ---A avon · bredon · wander · iA
- 2 BB-A singingB · ringingB · floating · skyA
- 3 --BA avon · bredon · ringingB · highA
- 4 CC-A lonelyC · onlyC · courting · iA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| IN the meadows by the Avon, | 8 | ··/···/˘ |
| Underneath the slope of Bredon, | 8 | ·˘/····· |
| There we often used to wander, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| My girl and I. | 4 | ···· |
| All around the thrushes singing, | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| And on Sunday, church bells ringing, | 8 | ··/···/˘ |
| Overhead the soft clouds floating, | 8 | /˘/···/˘ |
| White in the sky. | 4 | ···· |
| Still the waters of the Avon | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Flow so gently under Bredon, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| And on Sunday bells be ringing, | 8 | ··/···/˘ |
| Clouds floating high. | 4 | ·/˘· |
| But I’m sick at heart and lonely, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Nothing here has changed, save only | 8 | /˘····/˘ |
| Just we two, who once were courting, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| My girl and I. | 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.