The Moon's the North Wind's Cooky
The Moon's the North Wind's cooky.He bites it, day by day,Until there's but a rim of scrapsThat crumble all away.
The South Wind is a baker.He kneads clouds in his den,And bakes a crisp new moon that... greedyNorth... Wind... eats... again!
The moon's a cottage with a door.Some folks can see it plain.Look, you may catch a glint of light,A sparkle through the pane,Showing the place is brighter stillWithin, though bright without.There, at a cosy open fireStrange babes are grouped about.The children of the wind and tide--The urchins of the sky,Drying their wings from storms and thingsSo they again can fly.
Words in this poem
- cooky n.
- A small, flat, sweetened cake of various kinds. [Cf. D. koek cake, dim. koekje; akin to G. kuchen, E. cake; or cf. OE. coket, prob., a sort of cake, and prob. of French origin.]
- folks n.
- In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
- glint n.
- A glimpse, glance, or gleam. [OE. glent.]
- pane n.
- The narrow edge of a hammer head. See Peen. [F. panne.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Moon's the North Wind's Cooky is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Congo, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #1021; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Vachel Lindsay, The Moon's the North Wind's Cooky, in The Congo and Other Poems (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1021, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lindsay-congo/the-moon-s-the-north-wind-s-cooky.html, id L00983.
Form and metre
The Moon's the North Wind's Cooky is 20 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is short measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.8 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in short measure.
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 cooky · dayA · scraps · awayA
- 2 -A-A baker · denA · greedy · againA
- 3 -A-A-B-B-C-C door · plainA · light · paneA · still · withoutB · fire · aboutB · tide · skyC · things · flyC
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 short measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The Moon's the North Wind's cooky. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| He bites it, day by day, | 6 | ······ |
| Until there's but a rim of scraps | 8 | ········ |
| That crumble all away. | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| The South Wind is a baker. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| He kneads clouds in his den, | 6 | ······ |
| And bakes a crisp new moon that... greedy | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| North... Wind... eats... again! | 5 | ···˘/ |
| The moon's a cottage with a door. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Some folks can see it plain. | 6 | ······ |
| Look, you may catch a glint of light, | 8 | ········ |
| A sparkle through the pane, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Showing the place is brighter still | 7 | /˘···/· |
| Within, though bright without. | 6 | ······ |
| There, at a cosy open fire | 8 | ···/˘/˘/ |
| Strange babes are grouped about. | 6 | ······ |
| The children of the wind and tide-- | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The urchins of the sky, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Drying their wings from storms and things | 8 | /˘······ |
| So they again can fly. | 6 | ··˘/·· |
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.