Willow Wand
WILLOW wand, willow wand,Change this little slender frondTo a Princess tall and fair,With a mass of golden hair,Of golden hair.
Willow wand, willow wand,Change this shallow meadow pondTo a deep and crystal pool,Where she bathes at even cool,At even cool.
Wand cut from the willow tree,Build a fairy home for me,Build a home of light and shade,Sun and shadow deftly made,Most deftly made.
There where nothing comes to part,With the ladye of my heartI will dwell for ever—ever;We will quarrel never—never,Oh! never—never!
Words in this poem
- princess n.
- A female prince; a woman having sovereign power, or the rank of a prince. [F. princesse. See Prince, and cf. Princesse.]
- deftly adv.
- Aptly; fitly; dexterously; neatly. [Cf. Defly.]
- dwell v. i.
- To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Willow Wand 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, Willow Wand, in Songs of Three Counties, and Other Poems (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #50591, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hall-three-counties/willow-wand.html, id L22694.
Form and metre
Willow Wand is 20 lines in 4 stanzas of 5 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABBB. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See other poems in trochaic tetrameter.
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 AABBB wandA · frondA · fairB · hairB · hairB
- 2 AABBB wandA · pondA · poolB · coolB · coolB
- 3 AABBB treeA · meA · shadeB · madeB · madeB
- 4 AABBB partA · heartA · everB · neverB · neverB
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| WILLOW wand, willow wand, | 6 | /··/·· |
| Change this little slender frond | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| To a Princess tall and fair, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| With a mass of golden hair, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Of golden hair. | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Willow wand, willow wand, | 6 | /··/·· |
| Change this shallow meadow pond | 7 | ··/˘/·· |
| To a deep and crystal pool, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Where she bathes at even cool, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| At even cool. | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Wand cut from the willow tree, | 7 | ····/·· |
| Build a fairy home for me, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Build a home of light and shade, | 7 | ······· |
| Sun and shadow deftly made, | 7 | ··/·/˘· |
| Most deftly made. | 4 | ·/˘· |
| There where nothing comes to part, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| With the ladye of my heart | 7 | ······· |
| I will dwell for ever—ever; | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| We will quarrel never—never, | 8 | ··/˘/˘/˘ |
| Oh! never—never! | 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.