A Satyr Song
I know by the stir of the branchesThe way she went;And at times I can see where a stemOf the grass is bent.She’s the secret and light of my life,She allures to elude;But I follow the spell of her beautyWhatever the mood.
I have followed all night in the hills,And my breath is deep,But she flies on before like a voiceIn the vale of sleep.I follow the print of her feetIn the wild river bed,And lo, she calls gleefully downFrom a cliff overhead.
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- vale n.
- A tract of low ground, or of land between hills; a valley. [OE. val, F. val, L. vallis; perhaps akin to Gr. Avalanche, Vail to lower, Valley.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Satyr Song is in the public domain. This text is taken from The man with the hoe, and other poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #67012; 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, A Satyr Song, in The Man with the Hoe, and Other Poems (1899), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #67012, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/markham-man-with-hoe/a-satyr-song.html, id L24774.
Form and metre
A Satyr Song is 16 lines in 2 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is anapaestic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
See other poems in anapaestic trimeter.
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-B-B branches · wentA · stem · bentA · life · eludeB · beauty · moodB
- 2 -A-A-B-B hills · deepA · voice · sleepA · feet · bedB · down · overheadB
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 anapaestic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I know by the stir of the branches | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| The way she went; | 4 | ···· |
| And at times I can see where a stem | 9 | ········· |
| Of the grass is bent. | 5 | ····· |
| She’s the secret and light of my life, | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| She allures to elude; | 6 | ·˘/·˘/ |
| But I follow the spell of her beauty | 10 | ··/˘····/˘ |
| Whatever the mood. | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| I have followed all night in the hills, | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| And my breath is deep, | 5 | ····· |
| But she flies on before like a voice | 9 | ········· |
| In the vale of sleep. | 5 | ····· |
| I follow the print of her feet | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| In the wild river bed, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And lo, she calls gleefully down | 8 | ····/˘˘· |
| From a cliff overhead. | 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.