Iii.—Washing the Clothes
This is the way we wash the clo'esFree from dirt and smoke and clay!Through and through the water flows,Carries Ugly right away!
This is the way we bleach the clo'es:Lay them out upon the green;Through and through the sunshine goes,Makes them white as well as clean!
This is the way we dry the clo'es:Hang them on the bushes about;Through and through the soft wind blows,Draws and drives the wetness out!
Water, sun, and windy airMake the clothes clean, white, and sweetLay them now in lavenderFor the Sunday, folded neat!
Words in this poem
- sunshine n.
- The light of the sun, or the place where it shines; the direct rays of the sun, the place where they fall, or the warmth and light which they give.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Iii.—Washing the Clothes is in the public domain. This text is taken from The poetical works of George MacDonald in two volumes — Volume 2, Project Gutenberg ebook #9984; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: George MacDonald, Iii.—Washing the Clothes, in A Microcosm in Terza Rima, and Other Poems (1893), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9984, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/macdonald-poems/iii-washing-the-clothes.html, id L22515.
Form and metre
Iii.—Washing the Clothes is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
See other poems in trochaic 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 clo'esA · clayB · flowsA · awayB
- 2 ABAB clo'esA · greenB · goesA · cleanB
- 3 ABAB clo'esA · aboutB · blowsA · outB
- 4 -A-A air · sweetA · lavender · neatA
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| This is the way we wash the clo'es | 8 | ········ |
| Free from dirt and smoke and clay! | 7 | ······· |
| Through and through the water flows, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Carries Ugly right away! | 7 | /˘/˘·˘/ |
| This is the way we bleach the clo'es: | 8 | ········ |
| Lay them out upon the green; | 7 | ······· |
| Through and through the sunshine goes, | 7 | ····/·· |
| Makes them white as well as clean! | 7 | ······· |
| This is the way we dry the clo'es: | 8 | ········ |
| Hang them on the bushes about; | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Through and through the soft wind blows, | 7 | ······· |
| Draws and drives the wetness out! | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Water, sun, and windy air | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Make the clothes clean, white, and sweet | 7 | ······· |
| Lay them now in lavender | 7 | ····/˘˘ |
| For the Sunday, folded neat! | 7 | ··/·/˘· |
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.