Merrow Down I
There runs a road by Merrow Down--A grassy track to-day it is--An hour out of Guildford town,Above the river Wey it is.
Here, when they heard the horse-bells ring,The ancient Britons dressed and rodeTo watch the dark Phoenicians bringTheir goods along the Western Road.
Yes, here, or hereabouts, they metTo hold their racial talks and such--To barter beads for Whitby jet,And tin for gay shell torques and such.
But long and long before that time(When bison used to roam on it)Did Taffy and her Daddy climbThat Down, and had their home on it.
Then beavers built in BroadstonebrookAnd made a swamp where Bramley stands;And bears from Shere would come and lookFor Taffimai where Shamley stands.
The Wey, that Taffy called Wagai,Was more than six times bigger then;And all the Tribe of TegumaiThey cut a noble figure then!
Words in this poem
- rode n.
- Redness; complexion. [See Rud.]
- hereabouts adv.
- About this place; in this vicinity.
- racial a.
- Of or pertaining to a race or family of men; as, the racial complexion.
- torques n.
- A cervical ring of hair or feathers, distinguished by its color or structure; a collar. [L., a necklace. See Torque, 1.]
- taffy n.
- A kind of candy made of molasses or brown sugar boiled down and poured out in shallow pans. [Written also, in England, toffy.] [Prov. E. taffy toffy.]
- daddy n.
- Diminutive of Dad.
- shere adv.
- Clean; quite; at once.
- bigger a.
- , compar. of Big.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Merrow Down I is in the public domain. This text is taken from Songs from Books, Project Gutenberg ebook #15529; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Rudyard Kipling, Merrow Down I, in Songs from Books (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #15529, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kipling-songs-from-books/merrow-down-i.html, id L20377.
Form and metre
Merrow Down I is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. 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 ABAB downA · isB · townA · isB
- 2 ABAB ringA · rodeB · bringA · roadB
- 3 ABAB metA · suchB · jetA · suchB
- 4 ABAB timeA · itB · climbA · itB
- 5 ABAB broadstonebrookA · standsB · lookA · standsB
- 6 ABAB wagaiA · thenB · tegumaiA · thenB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| There runs a road by Merrow Down-- | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| A grassy track to-day it is-- | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| An hour out of Guildford town, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Above the river Wey it is. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Here, when they heard the horse-bells ring, | 8 | ········ |
| The ancient Britons dressed and rode | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| To watch the dark Phoenicians bring | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Their goods along the Western Road. | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| Yes, here, or hereabouts, they met | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| To hold their racial talks and such-- | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| To barter beads for Whitby jet, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And tin for gay shell torques and such. | 8 | ········ |
| But long and long before that time | 8 | ········ |
| (When bison used to roam on it) | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Did Taffy and her Daddy climb | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| That Down, and had their home on it. | 8 | ········ |
| Then beavers built in Broadstonebrook | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| And made a swamp where Bramley stands; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And bears from Shere would come and look | 8 | ········ |
| For Taffimai where Shamley stands. | 8 | ········ |
| The Wey, that Taffy called Wagai, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Was more than six times bigger then; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And all the Tribe of Tegumai | 8 | ········ |
| They cut a noble figure then! | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
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.