The Hidden Valley
I stray with Ariel and Caliban:I know the hill of windy pines--I knowWhere the jay’s nest swings in the wild gorge below:Lightly I climb where fallen cedars spanBright rivers--climb to a valley under ban,Where west winds set a thousand bells ablow--An eerie valley where in the morning glowI hear the music of the pipes of Pan.
Mysterious horns blow by on the still air--A satyr steps--a wood-god’s dewy notesCome faintly from a vale of tossing oats.--But ho! what white thing in the canyon crossed?Gods! I shall come on Dian unaware,Look on her fearful beauty and be lost.
Words in this poem
- eerie a.
- Serving to inspire fear, esp. a dread of seeing ghosts; wild; weird; as, eerie stories. [Scotch, fr. AS. earh timid.]
- satyr n.
- A sylvan deity or demigod, represented as part man and part goat, and characterized by riotous merriment and lasciviousness. [L. satyrus, Gr. satyre.]
- 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.]
- canyon n.
- The English form of the Spanish word Cañon.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- unaware a.
- Not aware; not noticing; giving no heed; thoughtless; inattentive.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Hidden Valley 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, The Hidden Valley, 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/the-hidden-valley.html, id L24756.
Form and metre
The Hidden Valley is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
See 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 ABBAABBA calibanA · knowB · belowB · spanA · banA · ablowB · glowB · panA
- 2 ABBCAC airA · notesB · oatsB · crossedC · unawareA · lostC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I stray with Ariel and Caliban: | 10 | ···/˘˘···· |
| I know the hill of windy pines--I know | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Where the jay’s nest swings in the wild gorge below: | 11 | ··········· |
| Lightly I climb where fallen cedars span | 10 | /˘···/˘/˘· |
| Bright rivers--climb to a valley under ban, | 11 | ·/˘···/˘··· |
| Where west winds set a thousand bells ablow-- | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| An eerie valley where in the morning glow | 11 | ·/˘/˘···/˘· |
| I hear the music of the pipes of Pan. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Mysterious horns blow by on the still air-- | 10 | ˘/˘······· |
| A satyr steps--a wood-god’s dewy notes | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Come faintly from a vale of tossing oats.-- | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| But ho! what white thing in the canyon crossed? | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Gods! I shall come on Dian unaware, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Look on her fearful beauty and be lost. | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
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.