In the Heart of the Woods II
O, Death will never find us in the heart of the wood,The song is in my blood, night and day:We will pluck a scented petal from the Rose upon the RoodWhere Love lies bleeding on the way.We will listen to the linnet and watch the waters leap,When the clouds go dreaming by,And under the wild roses and the stars we will sleep,And wander on together, you and I.
We shall understand the mystery that none has understood,We shall know why the leafy gloom is green.O, Death will never find us in the heart of the woodWhen we see what the stars have seen!We have heard the hidden song of the soft dews fallingAt the end of the last dark sky,Where all the sorrows of the world are calling,We must wander on together, you and I.
They are calling, calling, Away, come away!And we know not whence they call;For the song is in our hearts, we hear it night and day,As the deep tides rise and fall:O, Death will never find us in the heart of the wood,While the hours and the years roll by!We have heard it, we have heard it, but we have not understood,We must wander on together, you and I.
The wind may beat upon us, the rain may blind our eyes,The leaves may fall beneath the winter's wing;But we shall hear the music of the dream that never dies,And we shall know the secret of the Spring.We shall know how all the blossoms of evil and of goodAre mingled in the meadows of the sky;And then--if Death can find us in the heart of the wood--We shall wander on together, you and I.
Words in this poem
- rood n.
- A representation in sculpture or in painting of the cross with Christ hanging on it. [AS. rr, D. roede rod, G. ruthe, rute, OHG. ruota. CF. Rod a measure.]
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
In the Heart of the Woods II is in the public domain. This text is taken from Collected Poems: Volume One, Project Gutenberg ebook #30501; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Alfred Noyes, In the Heart of the Woods II, in Collected Poems, Volume One (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #30501, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/noyes-collected/in-the-heart-of-the-woods-ii.html, id L21390.
Form and metre
In the Heart of the Woods II is 32 lines in 4 stanzas of 8 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABCDCD, complete in 2 of its 4 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic trimeter.
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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 -A-ABCBC wood · dayA · rood · wayA · leapB · byC · sleepB · iC
- 2 ABAB-C-C understoodA · greenB · woodA · seenB · falling · skyC · calling · iC
- 3 ABABCDCD awayA · callB · dayA · fallB · woodC · byD · understoodC · iD
- 4 ABABCDCD eyesA · wingB · diesA · springB · goodC · skyD · woodC · iD
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| O, Death will never find us in the heart of the wood, | 12 | ···/········ |
| The song is in my blood, night and day: | 9 | ········· |
| We will pluck a scented petal from the Rose upon the Rood | 15 | ····/˘/˘······· |
| Where Love lies bleeding on the way. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| We will listen to the linnet and watch the waters leap, | 14 | ··/˘··/˘···/˘· |
| When the clouds go dreaming by, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| And under the wild roses and the stars we will sleep, | 13 | ·····/˘······ |
| And wander on together, you and I. | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘··· |
| We shall understand the mystery that none has understood, | 14 | ···˘/·/˘····˘/ |
| We shall know why the leafy gloom is green. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| O, Death will never find us in the heart of the wood | 12 | ···/········ |
| When we see what the stars have seen! | 8 | ········ |
| We have heard the hidden song of the soft dews falling | 13 | ····/˘·····/˘ |
| At the end of the last dark sky, | 8 | ········ |
| Where all the sorrows of the world are calling, | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
| We must wander on together, you and I. | 11 | ··/˘·˘/˘··· |
| They are calling, calling, Away, come away! | 11 | ··/˘/˘˘/·˘/ |
| And we know not whence they call; | 7 | ······· |
| For the song is in our hearts, we hear it night and day, | 13 | ·····/······· |
| As the deep tides rise and fall: | 7 | ······· |
| O, Death will never find us in the heart of the wood, | 12 | ···/········ |
| While the hours and the years roll by! | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| We have heard it, we have heard it, but we have not understood, | 15 | ·············˘/ |
| We must wander on together, you and I. | 11 | ··/˘·˘/˘··· |
| The wind may beat upon us, the rain may blind our eyes, | 13 | ···········/· |
| The leaves may fall beneath the winter's wing; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| But we shall hear the music of the dream that never dies, | 13 | ·····/˘····/· |
| And we shall know the secret of the Spring. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| We shall know how all the blossoms of evil and of good | 13 | ······/˘·/··· |
| Are mingled in the meadows of the sky; | 10 | ·/˘··/···· |
| And then--if Death can find us in the heart of the wood-- | 13 | ············· |
| We shall wander on together, you and I. | 11 | ··/˘·˘/˘··· |
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.