The Wood Pool
Here is a voice that soundeth low and farAnd lyric—voice of wind among the pines,Where the untroubled, glimmering waters are,And sunlight seldom shines.
Elusive shadows linger shyly here,And wood-flowers blow, like pale, sweet spirit-bloom,And white, slim birches whisper, mirrored clearIn the pool's lucent gloom.
Here Pan might pipe, or wandering dryad kneelTo view her loveliness beside the brim,Or laughing wood-nymphs from the byways stealTo dance around its rim.
'Tis such a witching spot as might beseemA seeker for young friendship's trysting place,Or lover yielding to the immortal dreamOf one beloved face.
Words in this poem
- elusive a.
- Tending to elude; using arts or deception to escape; adroitly escaping or evading; eluding the grasp; fallacious.
- shyly adv.
- In a shy or timid manner; not familiarly; with reserve.
- lucent a.
- Shining; bright; resplendent. [L. lucens, p. pr. of lucere to shine, fr. lux, lucis, light.]
- dryad n.
- A wood nymph; a nymph whose life was bound up with that of her tree. [L. dryas, pl. dryades, Gr. Tree.]
- kneel v. i.
- To bend the knee; to fall or rest on the knees; -- sometimes with down. [OE. knelen, cneolien; akin to D. knielen, Dan. knæle. See Knee.]
- loveliness n.
- The state or quality of being lovely. [From Lovely.]
- witching a.
- That witches or enchants; suited to enchantment or witchcraft; bewitching.
- beseem v. i.
- To seem; to appear; to be fitting.
- trysting n.
- An appointment; a tryst. Trysting day, an arranged day of meeting or assembling, as of soldiers, friends, and the like.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Wood Pool 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, The Wood Pool, in The Watchman and Other Poems (1916), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/montgomery-watchman/the-wood-pool.html, id L29387.
Form and metre
The Wood Pool is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
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 farA · pinesB · areA · shinesB
- 2 ABAB hereA · bloomB · clearA · gloomB
- 3 ABAB kneelA · brimB · stealA · rimB
- 4 ABAB beseemA · placeB · dreamA · faceB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Here is a voice that soundeth low and far | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And lyric—voice of wind among the pines, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Where the untroubled, glimmering waters are, | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘/˘· |
| And sunlight seldom shines. | 6 | ·/·/˘· |
| Elusive shadows linger shyly here, | 10 | ˘/˘/·/˘/˘· |
| And wood-flowers blow, like pale, sweet spirit-bloom, | 10 | ··/····/˘· |
| And white, slim birches whisper, mirrored clear | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| In the pool's lucent gloom. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Here Pan might pipe, or wandering dryad kneel | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| To view her loveliness beside the brim, | 10 | ···/˘˘˘/·· |
| Or laughing wood-nymphs from the byways steal | 10 | ·/˘····/·· |
| To dance around its rim. | 6 | ······ |
| 'Tis such a witching spot as might beseem | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| A seeker for young friendship's trysting place, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Or lover yielding to the immortal dream | 11 | ·/˘/˘··˘/˘· |
| Of one beloved face. | 5 | ··˘/· |
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.