A Sower
With sanguine looksAnd rolling walkAmong the rooksHe loved to stalk,
While on the landWith gusty laughFrom a full handHe scattered chaff.
Now that withinHis spirit sleepsA harvest thinThe sickle reaps;
But the dumb fieldsDesire his tread,And no earth yieldsA wheat more red.
Words in this poem
- gusty a.
- Subject to, or characterized by, gusts or squalls; windy; stormy; tempestuous.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Sower is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems: New and Old, Project Gutenberg ebook #24405; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Henry John Newbolt, A Sower, in Poems: New and Old (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #24405, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/newbolt-poems/a-sower.html, id L11452.
Form and metre
A Sower is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 4.1 syllables. 69% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic dimeter.
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 looksA · walkB · rooksA · stalkB
- 2 ABAB landA · laughB · handA · chaffB
- 3 ABAB withinA · sleepsB · thinA · reapsB
- 4 ABAB fieldsA · treadB · yieldsA · redB
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 dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| With sanguine looks | 4 | ·/˘· |
| And rolling walk | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Among the rooks | 4 | ···· |
| He loved to stalk, | 4 | ···· |
| While on the land | 4 | ···· |
| With gusty laugh | 4 | ·/˘· |
| From a full hand | 4 | ···· |
| He scattered chaff. | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Now that within | 4 | ···· |
| His spirit sleeps | 4 | ·/˘· |
| A harvest thin | 4 | ·/˘· |
| The sickle reaps; | 4 | ·/˘· |
| But the dumb fields | 4 | ···· |
| Desire his tread, | 5 | ˘/˘·· |
| And no earth yields | 4 | ···· |
| A wheat more red. | 4 | ···· |
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.