Etching
TWO and thirty is the ploughman.He’s a man of gallant inches,And his hair is close and curly,And his beard;But his face is wan and sunken,And his eyes are large and brilliant,And his shoulder-blades are sharp,And his knees.
He is weak of wits, religious,Full of sentiment and yearning,Gentle, faded—with a coughAnd a snore.When his wife (who was a widow,And is many years his elder)Fails to write, and that is always,He desponds.
Let his melancholy wander,And he’ll tell you pretty storiesOf the women that have wooed himLong ago;Or he’ll sing of bonnie lassesKeeping sheep among the heather,With a crackling, hackling clickIn his voice.
Words in this poem
- ploughman n.
- One who plows, or who holds and guides a plow; hence, a husbandman. Chaucer.
- snore v. i.
- To breathe with a rough, hoarse, nasal voice in sleep. [OE. snoren, AS. snora a snoring; akin to LG. snoren, snorken, snurken, to snore, D. snorken, G. schnarchen to snore, schnarren to rattle, MHG. snarren, Sw. snar]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Etching is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #1568; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: W. E. Henley, Etching, in Poems (1898), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1568, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/henley-poems/etching.html, id L12333.
Form and metre
Etching is 24 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.7 syllables. 12 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 21% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| TWO and thirty is the ploughman. | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| He’s a man of gallant inches, | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| And his hair is close and curly, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| And his beard; | 3 | ··· |
| But his face is wan and sunken, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| And his eyes are large and brilliant, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| And his shoulder-blades are sharp, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| And his knees. | 3 | ··· |
| He is weak of wits, religious, | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| Full of sentiment and yearning, | 8 | ··/˘˘·/˘ |
| Gentle, faded—with a cough | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| And a snore. | 3 | ··· |
| When his wife (who was a widow, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| And is many years his elder) | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Fails to write, and that is always, | 8 | ······/· |
| He desponds. | 3 | ··· |
| Let his melancholy wander, | 8 | ··/˘·˘/˘ |
| And he’ll tell you pretty stories | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Of the women that have wooed him | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Long ago; | 3 | ·˘/ |
| Or he’ll sing of bonnie lasses | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Keeping sheep among the heather, | 8 | /˘····/˘ |
| With a crackling, hackling click | 8 | ··/˘/˘˘· |
| In his voice. | 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.