The Pedlar
Lend me, a little while, the keyThat locks your heavy heart, and I’ll give you back--Rarer than books and ribbons and beads bright to see,This little Key of Dreams out of my pack.
The road, the road, beyond men’s bolted doors,There shall I walk and you go free of me,For yours lies North across the moors,And mine South. To what sea?
How if we stopped and let our solemn selves go by,While my gay ghost caught and kissed yours, as ghosts don’t do,And by the wayside this forgotten you and ISat, and were twenty-two?
Give me the key that locks your tired eyes,And I will lend you this one from my pack,Brighter than coloured beads and painted books that make men wise:Take it. No, give it back!
Words in this poem
- 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,]
- ghost n.
- The spirit; the soul of man. [OE. gast, gost, soul, spirit, AS. gast breath, spirit, soul; akin to OS. g spirit, soul, D. geest, G. geist, and prob. to E. gaze, ghastly.]
- wayside n.
- The side of the way; the edge or border of a road or path.
- coloured a.
- Having color; tinged; dyed; painted; stained.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Pedlar 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, The Pedlar, in The Farmer's Bride (1916), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #71305, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/mew-farmers-bride/the-pedlar.html, id L02460.
Form and metre
The Pedlar is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter. 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.7 syllables. 12% 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 ABAB keyA · backB · seeA · packB
- 2 -A-A doors · meA · moors · seaA
- 3 ABAB byA · doB · iA · twoB
- 4 ABAB eyesA · packB · wiseA · backB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Lend me, a little while, the key | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| That locks your heavy heart, and I’ll give you back-- | 11 | ···/˘······ |
| Rarer than books and ribbons and beads bright to see, | 12 | /˘···/˘····· |
| This little Key of Dreams out of my pack. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| The road, the road, beyond men’s bolted doors, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| There shall I walk and you go free of me, | 10 | ·········· |
| For yours lies North across the moors, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| And mine South. To what sea? | 6 | ······ |
| How if we stopped and let our solemn selves go by, | 12 | ······//˘··· |
| While my gay ghost caught and kissed yours, as ghosts don’t do, | 12 | ············ |
| And by the wayside this forgotten you and I | 12 | ···/··˘/˘··· |
| Sat, and were twenty-two? | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Give me the key that locks your tired eyes, | 9 | ·······/· |
| And I will lend you this one from my pack, | 10 | ·········· |
| Brighter than coloured beads and painted books that make men wise: | 13 | /·/˘··/˘····· |
| Take it. No, give it back! | 6 | ······ |
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.