Arracombe Wood
Some said, because he wud’n spaikAny words to women but Yes and No,Nor put out his hand for Parson to shakeHe mun be bird-witted. But I do goBy the lie of the barley that he did sow,And I wish no better thing than to hold a rakeLike Dave, in his time, or to see him mow.
Put up in churchyard a month ago,“A bitter old soul,” they said, but it wadn’t so.His heart were in Arracombe Wood where he’d used to goTo sit and talk wi’ his shadder till sun went low,Though what it was all about us’ll never know.And there baint no mem’ry in the placeOf th’ old man’s footmark, nor his face;Arracombe Wood do think more of a crow--’Will be violets there in the Spring: in Summer time thespider’s lace;And come the Fall, the whizzle and raceOf the dry, dead leaves when the wind gies chase;And on the Eve of Christmas, fallin’ snow.
Words in this poem
- churchyard n.
- The ground adjoining a church, in which the dead are buried; a cemetery.
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- footmark n.
- A footprint; a track or vestige. Coleridge.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Arracombe Wood is in the public domain. This text is taken from The farmer's bride, Project Gutenberg ebook #71305; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Charlotte Mew, Arracombe Wood, in The Farmer's Bride (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #71305, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mew-farmers-bride/arracombe-wood.html, id L02476.
Form and metre
Arracombe Wood is 20 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 75%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.8 syllables. 40% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 ABABBAB spaikA · noB · shakeA · goB · sowB · rakeA · mowB
- 2 AAAAABBA-BBBA agoA · soA · goA · lowA · knowA · placeB · faceB · crowA · the · laceB · raceB · chaseB · snowA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Some said, because he wud’n spaik | 7 | ······· |
| Any words to women but Yes and No, | 10 | /˘··/˘···· |
| Nor put out his hand for Parson to shake | 10 | ······/˘·· |
| He mun be bird-witted. But I do go | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| By the lie of the barley that he did sow, | 11 | ·····/˘···· |
| And I wish no better thing than to hold a rake | 12 | ····/˘······ |
| Like Dave, in his time, or to see him mow. | 10 | ·········· |
| Put up in churchyard a month ago, | 9 | ···/···˘/ |
| “A bitter old soul,” they said, but it wadn’t so. | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| His heart were in Arracombe Wood where he’d used to go | 13 | ············· |
| To sit and talk wi’ his shadder till sun went low, | 12 | ············ |
| Though what it was all about us’ll never know. | 10 | ········/· |
| And there baint no mem’ry in the place | 9 | ········· |
| Of th’ old man’s footmark, nor his face; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Arracombe Wood do think more of a crow-- | 10 | ·········· |
| ’Will be violets there in the Spring: in Summer time the | 13 | ··/˘·····/˘·· |
| spider’s lace; | 3 | /˘· |
| And come the Fall, the whizzle and race | 9 | ········· |
| Of the dry, dead leaves when the wind gies chase; | 10 | ·········· |
| And on the Eve of Christmas, fallin’ snow. | 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.