Out O' Doors
There's a gypsy wind across the harvest land,Let us fare forth with it lightly hand in hand;Where cloud shadows blow across the sunwarm waste,And the first red leaves are falling let us haste,For the waning days are lavish of their stores,And the joy of life is with us out o' doors!
Let us roam along the ways of golden rodOver uplands where the spicy bracken nod,Through the wildwood where the hemlock branches croonTheir rune-chant of elder days across the noon,For the mellow air its pungency outpours,And the glory of the year is out o' doors!
There's a great gray sea beyond us calling far,There's a blue tide curling o'er the harbor bar;Ho, the breeze that smites us saltly on the lipsWhistles gaily in the sails of outbound ships;Let us send our thoughts with them to fabled shores,For the pilgrim mood is on us out o' doors!
Lo! the world's rejoicing in each spirit thrills,Strength and gladness are to us upon the hills;We are one with crimson bough and ancient sea,Holding all the joy of autumn hours in fee,Hope within us like a questing bird upsoars,And there's room for song and laughter out o' doors.
Words in this poem
- waning n.
- The act or process of waning, or decreasing.
- bracken n.
- A brake or fern. [OE. braken, AS. bracce. See 2d Brake, n.]
- wildwood n.
- A wild or unfrequented wood. Also used adjectively; as, wildwood flowers; wildwood echoes. Burns.
- croon v. i.
- To make a continuous hollow moan, as cattle do when in pain.
- pungency n.
- The quality or state of being pungent or piercing; keenness; sharpness; piquancy; as, the pungency of ammonia.
- saltly adv.
- With taste of salt; in a salt manner.
- gaily adv.
- Merrily; showily. See gaily. [From Gay.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Out O' Doors is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Watchman and Other Poems (New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1917; Toronto: McClelland, Goodchild and Stewart, 1916), Internet Archive; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: L. M. Montgomery, Out O' Doors, in The Watchman and Other Poems (1916), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/montgomery-watchman/out-o-doors.html, id L29401.
Form and metre
Out O' Doors is 24 lines in 4 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABBCC. The metre is trochaic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
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.
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 AABBCC landA · handA · wasteB · hasteB · storesC · doorsC
- 2 AABBCC rodA · nodA · croonB · noonB · outpoursC · doorsC
- 3 AABBCC farA · barA · lipsB · shipsB · shoresC · doorsC
- 4 AABBCC thrillsA · hillsA · seaB · feeB · upsoarsC · doorsC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| There's a gypsy wind across the harvest land, | 11 | ··/˘·˘/·/˘· |
| Let us fare forth with it lightly hand in hand; | 11 | ······/˘··· |
| Where cloud shadows blow across the sunwarm waste, | 11 | ··/··˘/···· |
| And the first red leaves are falling let us haste, | 11 | ······/˘··· |
| For the waning days are lavish of their stores, | 11 | ··/˘··/˘··· |
| And the joy of life is with us out o' doors! | 11 | ··········· |
| Let us roam along the ways of golden rod | 11 | ···˘/···/˘· |
| Over uplands where the spicy bracken nod, | 11 | ··/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Through the wildwood where the hemlock branches croon | 11 | ··/···/·/˘· |
| Their rune-chant of elder days across the noon, | 11 | ····/˘·˘/·· |
| For the mellow air its pungency outpours, | 11 | ··/˘··/˘˘·/ |
| And the glory of the year is out o' doors! | 11 | ··/˘······· |
| There's a great gray sea beyond us calling far, | 11 | ········/˘· |
| There's a blue tide curling o'er the harbor bar; | 11 | ····/˘··/˘· |
| Ho, the breeze that smites us saltly on the lips | 11 | ······/˘··· |
| Whistles gaily in the sails of outbound ships; | 11 | /˘/˘····/·· |
| Let us send our thoughts with them to fabled shores, | 11 | ···/····/˘· |
| For the pilgrim mood is on us out o' doors! | 11 | ··/˘······· |
| Lo! the world's rejoicing in each spirit thrills, | 11 | ···˘/˘··/˘· |
| Strength and gladness are to us upon the hills; | 11 | ··/˘······· |
| We are one with crimson bough and ancient sea, | 11 | ····/˘··/˘· |
| Holding all the joy of autumn hours in fee, | 11 | /˘····/˘/·· |
| Hope within us like a questing bird upsoars, | 11 | ······/˘··· |
| And there's room for song and laughter out o' doors. | 11 | ······/˘··· |
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