The Shadows
Boughs of the pine and stars between,In woods where shadows fill the air,Oh, who may rest that once has beenA shadow there?
Sounds of the night and tears between,The grey owl hooting, dimly heard;Can footsteps reach those lands unseen,Or wings of bird?
Days of the years and worlds between,Still through the boughs the stars may burn,The heart may break for lands unseen,For woods wherein its life has been,But not return.
Words in this poem
- dimly adv.
- In a dim or obscure manner; not brightly or clearly; with imperfect sight.
- unseen a.
- Not seen or discovered.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Shadows is in the public domain. This text is taken from Bonnie Joann, and other poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #69484; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Violet Jacob, The Shadows, in Bonnie Joann, and Other Poems (1921), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #69484, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/jacob-bonnie-joann/the-shadows.html, id L21954.
Form and metre
The Shadows is 13 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
See other poems in iambic 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 -A-A between · airA · been · thereA
- 2 ABAB betweenA · heardB · unseenA · birdB
- 3 ABA-B betweenA · burnB · unseenA · been · returnB
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Boughs of the pine and stars between, | 8 | ········ |
| In woods where shadows fill the air, | 8 | ···/···· |
| Oh, who may rest that once has been | 8 | ········ |
| A shadow there? | 4 | ·/·· |
| Sounds of the night and tears between, | 8 | ········ |
| The grey owl hooting, dimly heard; | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Can footsteps reach those lands unseen, | 8 | ·/····˘/ |
| Or wings of bird? | 4 | ···· |
| Days of the years and worlds between, | 8 | ········ |
| Still through the boughs the stars may burn, | 8 | ········ |
| The heart may break for lands unseen, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| For woods wherein its life has been, | 8 | ········ |
| But not return. | 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.