The Way Through the Woods
They shut the road through the woodsSeventy years ago.Weather and rain have undone it again,And now you would never knowThere was once a road through the woodsBefore they planted the trees.It is underneath the coppice and heath,And the thin anemones.Only the keeper seesThat, where the ring-dove broods.And the badgers roll at ease,There was once a road through the woods.
Yet, if you enter the woodsOf a summer evening late,When the night-air cools on the trout-ringed poolsWhere the otter whistles his mate.(They fear not men in the woods.Because they see so few)You will hear the beat of a horse's feet,And the swish of a skirt in the dew,Steadily cantering throughThe misty solitudes,As though they perfectly knewThe old lost road through the woods ...But there is no road through the woods!
Words in this poem
- undone a.
- Not done or performed; neglected. [Pref. un- not + done.]
- coppice n.
- A grove of small growth; a thicket of brushwood; a wood cut at certain times for fuel or other purposes. See Copse. [OF. copeiz, fr. coper, couper, to cut, F. couper, fr. cop, coup, colp, a blow, F. coup, L. colaphus, fr. G. Copse, and cf. Coup, Coupee.]
- otter n.
- Any carnivorous animal of the genus Lutra, and related genera. [OE. oter, AS. Otor; akin to D. & G. otter, Icel. otr, Dan. odder, Sw. utter, Lith. udra, Russ, vuidra, Gr. udra otter, and also to E. water. Water, and cf. Hydr]
- swish v. t.
- To flourish, so as to make the sound swish. Coleridge. [From the sound. Cf. Swash.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Way Through the Woods 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, The Way Through the Woods, in Songs from Books (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #15529, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/kipling-songs-from-books/the-way-through-the-woods.html, id L20278.
Form and metre
The Way Through the Woods is 25 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 79%).
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 AB-BAC--C-CA woodsA · agoB · again · knowB · woodsA · treesC · heath · anemones · seesC · broods · easeC · woodsA
- 2 AB-BAC-CC-CAA woodsA · lateB · pools · mateB · woodsA · fewC · feet · dewC · throughC · solitudes · knewC · woodsA · woodsA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| They shut the road through the woods | 7 | ······· |
| Seventy years ago. | 6 | /˘˘·˘/ |
| Weather and rain have undone it again, | 10 | /˘···˘/·˘/ |
| And now you would never know | 7 | ····/˘· |
| There was once a road through the woods | 8 | ········ |
| Before they planted the trees. | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| It is underneath the coppice and heath, | 10 | ···˘/·/˘·· |
| And the thin anemones. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Only the keeper sees | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| That, where the ring-dove broods. | 6 | ······ |
| And the badgers roll at ease, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| There was once a road through the woods. | 8 | ········ |
| Yet, if you enter the woods | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| Of a summer evening late, | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| When the night-air cools on the trout-ringed pools | 10 | ·········· |
| Where the otter whistles his mate. | 8 | ··/˘/˘·· |
| (They fear not men in the woods. | 7 | ······· |
| Because they see so few) | 6 | ······ |
| You will hear the beat of a horse's feet, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And the swish of a skirt in the dew, | 9 | ········· |
| Steadily cantering through | 7 | /˘˘/˘˘· |
| The misty solitudes, | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| As though they perfectly knew | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| The old lost road through the woods ... | 7 | ······· |
| But there is no road through the woods! | 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.