Pastorals V
NOW from the meadow floods the wild duck clamours,Now the wood pigeon wings a rapid flight,Now the homeward rookery follows up its vanguard,And the valley mists are curling up the hills.
Three short songs gives the clear-voiced throstle,Sweetening the twilight ere he fills the nest;While the little bird upon the leafless branchesTweets to its mate a tiny loving note.
Deeper the stillness hangs on every motion;Calmer the silence follows every call;Now all is quiet save the roosting pheasant,The bell-wether’s tinkle and the watch-dog’s bark.
Softly shine the lights from the silent kindling homestead,Stars of the hearth to the shepherd in the fold;Springs of desire to the traveller on the roadway;Ever breathing incense to the ever-blessing sky!
Words in this poem
- homeward a.
- Being in the direction of home; as, the homeward way.
- rookery n.
- The breeding place of a colony of rooks; also, the birds themselves.
- vanguard n.
- The troops who march in front of an army; the advance guard; the van. [For vantguard, avantguard, F. avant-garde; avant before, fore + garde guard. See Avant, Ab-,Ante-, and Guard, and cf. Advance, Vamp, Van of an army, Vaward.]
- throstle n.
- The song thrush. See under Song. [OE. throsel, AS. , ; akin to MHG. trostel, G. drossel, Icel. , Sw. trast, Lith. strazdas, L. turdus. *238. Cf. Thrush the bird.]
- sweetening n.
- The act of making sweet.
- stillness n.
- The quality or state of being still; quietness; silence; calmness; inactivity.
- calmer n.
- One who, or that which, makes calm.
- roadway n.
- A road; especially, the part traveled by carriages.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Pastorals V is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems — Volume 1, Project Gutenberg ebook #1381; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: George Meredith, Pastorals V, in Modern Love, and Other Poems (1851–1862), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1381, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/meredith-poems/pastorals-v.html, id L13155.
Form and metre
Pastorals V is 16 lines in 4 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is trochaic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 76%). 85% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 11.1 syllables. 5 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 6% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic hexameter.
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 hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| NOW from the meadow floods the wild duck clamours, | 11 | ···/·····/˘ |
| Now the wood pigeon wings a rapid flight, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Now the homeward rookery follows up its vanguard, | 13 | ··/˘/˘˘/˘··/· |
| And the valley mists are curling up the hills. | 11 | ··/˘··/˘··· |
| Three short songs gives the clear-voiced throstle, | 10 | ·······˘/˘ |
| Sweetening the twilight ere he fills the nest; | 10 | /˘·/······ |
| While the little bird upon the leafless branches | 12 | ··/˘····/˘/˘ |
| Tweets to its mate a tiny loving note. | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Deeper the stillness hangs on every motion; | 11 | /˘·/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Calmer the silence follows every call; | 10 | /˘·/˘/˘/˘· |
| Now all is quiet save the roosting pheasant, | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
| The bell-wether’s tinkle and the watch-dog’s bark. | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| Softly shine the lights from the silent kindling homestead, | 13 | /˘·····/˘/˘/· |
| Stars of the hearth to the shepherd in the fold; | 11 | ······/˘··· |
| Springs of desire to the traveller on the roadway; | 12 | ··˘/··/˘··/· |
| Ever breathing incense to the ever-blessing sky! | 11 | //˘˘/··//˘· |
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.