In a Corn-field
Who was it passed me, his body a-throbbing?Who but Sir Humblebee home from his robbing!
What is that crackle of chariots whirling?‘Tis Cricket Achilles where green smoke is curling.
And who is it comes on the bloom-ocean steering?Bold Dragonfly Cortez, a-tacking and veering!
About this text
In a Corn-field is in the public domain. This text is taken from Lincoln & other poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #54527; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edwin Markham, In a Corn-field, in Lincoln and Other Poems (1901), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #54527, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/markham-lincoln/in-a-corn-field.html, id L10781.
Form and metre
In a Corn-field is 6 lines in 3 stanzas of 2 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets: heroic couplets. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter. 68% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 11.3 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in heroic couplets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 AA throbbingA · robbingA
- 2 AA whirlingA · curlingA
- 3 AA steeringA · veeringA
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Who was it passed me, his body a-throbbing? | 11 | ······/˘·/˘ |
| Who but Sir Humblebee home from his robbing! | 11 | ···/˘˘···/˘ |
| What is that crackle of chariots whirling? | 11 | ···/˘·/˘˘/˘ |
| ‘Tis Cricket Achilles where green smoke is curling. | 12 | ·/˘˘/˘····/˘ |
| And who is it comes on the bloom-ocean steering? | 11 | ········//˘ |
| Bold Dragonfly Cortez, a-tacking and veering! | 12 | ····˘/·/˘·/˘ |
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.