Walking Out
UPON a Sunday afternoon,When no one else was by,The little girl from Hanley way,She came and walked with I.
We climbed nigh to the Beacon top,And never word spoke we,But oh! we heard the thrushes singWithin the cherry tree.
The cherry tree was all a-bloom,And Malvern lay below,And far away the Severn wound—’Twas like a silver bow.
She took my arm, I took her hand,And never word we said,But oh! I knew her eyes were brown,Her lips were sweet and red.
And when I brought her home again,The stars were up above,And ’twas the nightingale that swelledHis little throat with love!
Words in this poem
- afternoon n.
- The part of the day which follows noon, between noon and evening.
- spoke n.
- The radius or ray of a wheel; one of the small bars which are inserted in the hub, or nave, and which serve to support the rim or felly. [OE. spoke, spake, AS, spaca; akin to D. speek, LG. speke, OHG. speihha, G. speiche. sq. root170. Cf. Spike a nail.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Walking Out 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, Walking Out, in Songs of Three Counties, and Other Poems (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #50591, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hall-three-counties/walking-out.html, id L22657.
Form and metre
Walking Out is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
See other poems in common measure.
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-A afternoon · byA · way · iA
- 2 -A-A top · weA · sing · treeA
- 3 -A-A bloom · belowA · wound · bowA
- 4 -A-A hand · saidA · brown · redA
- 5 -A-A again · aboveA · swelled · loveA
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| UPON a Sunday afternoon, | 8 | ···/··˘/ |
| When no one else was by, | 6 | ······ |
| The little girl from Hanley way, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| She came and walked with I. | 6 | ······ |
| We climbed nigh to the Beacon top, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And never word spoke we, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| But oh! we heard the thrushes sing | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Within the cherry tree. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The cherry tree was all a-bloom, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And Malvern lay below, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And far away the Severn wound— | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| ’Twas like a silver bow. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| She took my arm, I took her hand, | 8 | ········ |
| And never word we said, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| But oh! I knew her eyes were brown, | 8 | ········ |
| Her lips were sweet and red. | 6 | ······ |
| And when I brought her home again, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| The stars were up above, | 6 | ······ |
| And ’twas the nightingale that swelled | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| His little throat with love! | 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.