On Eastnor Knoll
Silent are the woods, and the dim green boughs areHushed in the twilight: yonder, in the path throughThe apple orchard, is a tired plough-boyCalling the cows home.
A bright white star blinks, the pale moon rounds, butStill the red, lurid wreckage of the sunsetSmoulders in smoky fire, and burns onThe misty hill-tops.
Ghostly it grows, and darker, the burningFades into smoke, and now the gusty oaks areA silent army of phantoms throngingA land of shadows.
Words in this poem
- yonder adv.
- At a distance, but within view. [OE. yonder, ýonder; cf. OD. ginder, Goth. jaindr there. Yond, adv.]
- lurid a.
- Pale yellow; ghastly pale; wan; gloomy; dismal. [L. luridus.]
- wreckage n.
- The act of wrecking, or state of being wrecked.
- ghostly a.
- Relating to the soul; not carnal or secular; spiritual; as, a ghostly confessor. [OE. gastlich, gostlich, AS. gastlic. See Ghost.]
- gusty a.
- Subject to, or characterized by, gusts or squalls; windy; stormy; tempestuous.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
On Eastnor Knoll is in the public domain. This text is taken from Salt-Water Ballads, Project Gutenberg ebook #52761; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Masefield, On Eastnor Knoll, in Salt-Water Ballads (1902), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #52761, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/masefield-salt-water/on-eastnor-knoll.html, id L12685.
Form and metre
On Eastnor Knoll is 12 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is trochaic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 74%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.2 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 75% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic 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.
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Silent are the woods, and the dim green boughs are | 11 | /˘········· |
| Hushed in the twilight: yonder, in the path through | 11 | ···/·/˘···· |
| The apple orchard, is a tired plough-boy | 11 | ·/˘/˘··/˘·· |
| Calling the cows home. | 5 | /˘··· |
| A bright white star blinks, the pale moon rounds, but | 10 | ·········· |
| Still the red, lurid wreckage of the sunset | 11 | ···/˘/˘··/· |
| Smoulders in smoky fire, and burns on | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| The misty hill-tops. | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| Ghostly it grows, and darker, the burning | 10 | /˘···/˘·/˘ |
| Fades into smoke, and now the gusty oaks are | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| A silent army of phantoms thronging | 10 | ·/˘/˘·/˘/˘ |
| A land of shadows. | 5 | ···/· |
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.