Two Rivers
Says Tweed to Till--‘What gars ye rin sae still?’Says Till to Tweed--‘Though ye rin with speedAnd I rin slaw,For ae man that ye droonI droon twa.’
Words in this poem
- tweed n.
- A soft and flexible fabric for men's wear, made wholly of wool except in some inferior kinds, the wool being dyed, usually in two colors, before weaving. [Probably a corruption of twills. See Twill.]
- slaw n.
- Sliced cabbage served as a salad, cooked or uncooked. [D. sla, contr. fr. salade, OD. salaet, salad. See Salad.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Two Rivers is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1900, Project Gutenberg ebook #66619; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Anonymous, Two Rivers, in Poems, text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/obev-anonymous-english/two-rivers.html, id L15937.
Form and metre
Two Rivers is 7 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 57% of the lines. The metre is iambic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 4.6 syllables.
See other poems in rhyming couplets, 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 AABB--- tillA · stillA · tweedB · speedB · slaw · droon · twa
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Says Tweed to Till-- | 4 | ···· |
| ‘What gars ye rin sae still?’ | 6 | ······ |
| Says Till to Tweed-- | 4 | ···· |
| ‘Though ye rin with speed | 5 | ····· |
| And I rin slaw, | 4 | ···· |
| For ae man that ye droon | 6 | ······ |
| I droon twa.’ | 3 | ··· |
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.