Tewkesbury Road
It is good to be out on the road, and going one knows not where,Going through meadow and village, one knows not whither nor why;Through the grey light drift of the dust, in the keen coolrush of the air,Under the flying white clouds, and the broad blue lift of the sky;
And to halt at the chattering brook, in the tall green fern at the brinkWhere the harebell grows, and the gorse, and the fox-glovespurple and white;Where the shy-eyed delicate deer troop down to the pools to drink,When the stars are mellow and large at the coming on of the night.
O! to feel the warmth of the rain, and the homely smell of the earth,Is a tune for the blood to jig to, a joy past power of words;And the blessed green comely meadows seem all a-ripple with mirthAt the lilt of the shifting feet, and the dear wild cry of the birds.
Words in this poem
- whither adv.
- To what place; -- used interrogatively; as, whither goest thou [OE. whider. AS. hwider; akin to E. where, who; cf. Goth. hvadre whither. See Who, and cf. Hither, Thither.]
- chattering n.
- The act or habit of talking idly or rapidly, or of making inarticulate sounds; the sounds so made; noise made by the collision of the teeth; chatter.
- brink n.
- The edge, margin, or border of a steep place, as of a precipice; a bank or edge, as of a river or pit; a verge; a border; as, the brink of a chasm. Also Fig. [Dan. brink edge, verge; akin to Sw. brink declivity, hill, Icel. brekka; cf. LG. brink a grassy hill, W. bryn hill, bryncyn hillock.]
- harebell n.
- A small, slender, branching plant (Campanula rotundifolia), having blue bell-shaped flowers; also, Scilla nutans, which has similar flowers; -- called also bluebell.
- gorse n.
- Furze. See Furze. [OE. & AS. gorst; perh. akin to E. grow, grass.]
- homely a.
- Belonging to, or having the characteristics of, home; domestic; familiar; intimate. [From Home, n.]
- lilt v. i.
- To do anything with animation and quickness, as to skip, fly, or hop. [Cf. Norw. lilla, lirla, to sing in a high tone.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Tewkesbury Road 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, Tewkesbury Road, in Salt-Water Ballads (1902), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #52761, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/masefield-salt-water/tewkesbury-road.html, id L12684.
Form and metre
Tewkesbury Road is 14 lines in 3 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic heptameter. 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 13.5 syllables. 29% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic heptameter.
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 AB-AB whereA · whyB · cool · airA · skyB
- 2 A-BAB brinkA · gloves · whiteB · drinkA · nightB
- 3 ABAB earthA · wordsB · mirthA · birdsB
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 heptameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| It is good to be out on the road, and going one knows not where, | 16 | ··········/˘···· |
| Going through meadow and village, one knows not whither nor why; | 15 | /˘·/··/˘···/˘·· |
| Through the grey light drift of the dust, in the keen cool | 12 | ············ |
| rush of the air, | 4 | ···· |
| Under the flying white clouds, and the broad blue lift of the sky; | 15 | ···/˘·········· |
| And to halt at the chattering brook, in the tall green fern at the brink | 17 | ·····/˘˘········· |
| Where the harebell grows, and the gorse, and the fox-gloves | 12 | ··/˘········ |
| purple and white; | 4 | /˘·· |
| Where the shy-eyed delicate deer troop down to the pools to drink, | 15 | ····/˘˘········ |
| When the stars are mellow and large at the coming on of the night. | 16 | ····/˘····/˘···· |
| O! to feel the warmth of the rain, and the homely smell of the earth, | 16 | ··········/˘···· |
| Is a tune for the blood to jig to, a joy past power of words; | 16 | ············/˘·· |
| And the blessed green comely meadows seem all a-ripple with mirth | 15 | ····/˘/····/˘·· |
| At the lilt of the shifting feet, and the dear wild cry of the birds. | 16 | ·····/˘········· |
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.