Merrow Down II
Of all the Tribe of TegumaiWho cut that figure, none remain,--On Merrow Down the cuckoos cry--The silence and the sun remain.
But as the faithful years returnAnd hearts unwounded sing again,Comes Taffy dancing through the fernTo lead the Surrey spring again.
Her brows are bound with bracken-fronds,And golden elf-locks fly above;Her eyes are bright as diamondsAnd bluer than the sky above.
In mocassins and deer-skin cloak,Unfearing, free and fair she flits,And lights her little damp-wood smokeTo show her Daddy where she flits.
For far--oh, very far behind,So far she cannot call to him,Comes Tegumai alone to findThe daughter that was all to him.
Words in this poem
- 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.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Merrow Down II 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 II, in Songs from Books (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #15529, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kipling-songs-from-books/merrow-down-ii.html, id L20378.
Form and metre
Merrow Down II is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 96%).
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 tegumaiA · remainB · cryA · remainB
- 2 ABAB returnA · againB · fernA · againB
- 3 ABAB frondsA · aboveB · diamondsA · aboveB
- 4 ABAB cloakA · flitsB · smokeA · flitsB
- 5 ABAB behindA · himB · findA · himB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Of all the Tribe of Tegumai | 8 | ········ |
| Who cut that figure, none remain,-- | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| On Merrow Down the cuckoos cry-- | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The silence and the sun remain. | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| But as the faithful years return | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| And hearts unwounded sing again, | 8 | ··˘/˘·˘/ |
| Comes Taffy dancing through the fern | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| To lead the Surrey spring again. | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Her brows are bound with bracken-fronds, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And golden elf-locks fly above; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Her eyes are bright as diamonds | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| And bluer than the sky above. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| In mocassins and deer-skin cloak, | 8 | ········ |
| Unfearing, free and fair she flits, | 8 | ········ |
| And lights her little damp-wood smoke | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| To show her Daddy where she flits. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| For far--oh, very far behind, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| So far she cannot call to him, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Comes Tegumai alone to find | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| The daughter that was all to him. | 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.