Storm
You crash over the trees,you crack the live branch--the branch is white,the green crushed,each leaf is rent like split wood.
You burden the treeswith black drops,you swirl and crash--you have broken off a weighted leafin the wind,it is hurled out,whirls up and sinks,a green stone.
Words in this poem
- swirl v. t.
- To whirl, or cause to whirl, as in an eddy. [Akin to Norw. svirla to whirl, freq. of sverra to whirl, Dan. svirre, G. schwirren to whiz, to buzz. *177. See Swarm, n.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Storm is in the public domain. This text is taken from Sea Garden, Project Gutenberg ebook #28665; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: H.D., Storm, in Sea Garden (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #28665, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hd-sea-garden/storm.html, id L08278.
Form and metre
Storm is 13 lines in 2 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is iambic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 4.6 syllables. 15% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic dimeter.
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.
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 dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| You crash over the trees, | 6 | ······ |
| you crack the live branch-- | 5 | ····· |
| the branch is white, | 4 | ···· |
| the green crushed, | 3 | ··· |
| each leaf is rent like split wood. | 7 | ······· |
| You burden the trees | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| with black drops, | 3 | ··· |
| you swirl and crash-- | 4 | ···· |
| you have broken off a weighted leaf | 9 | ··/˘··/˘· |
| in the wind, | 3 | ··· |
| it is hurled out, | 4 | ···· |
| whirls up and sinks, | 4 | ···· |
| a green stone. | 3 | ··· |
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.