The Sands of Dee

Charles Kingsley (1819–1875) · 1819–1875

iambic trimeter · AAABAB · 24 lines · from Poems

‘O Mary, go and call the cattle home,And call the cattle home,And call the cattle home,Across the sands of Dee.’The western wind was wild and dark with foam,And all alone went she.

The western tide crept up along the sand,And o’er and o’er the sand,And round and round the sand,As far as eye could see.The rolling mist came down and hid the land:And never home came she.

‘O is it weed, or fish, or floating hair--A tress of golden hair,A drownèd maiden’s hair,Above the nets at sea?’Was never salmon yet that shone so fairAmong the stakes of Dee.

They row’d her in across the rolling foam,The cruel crawling foam,The cruel hungry foam,To her grave beside the sea.But still the boatmen hear her call the cattle home,Across the sands of Dee.

Words in this poem

went n.: Course; way; path; journey; direction.
tress n.: A braid, knot, or curl, of hair; a ringlet. [OE. tresse, OF. trece, F. tresse, LL. tricia, fr. Gr. tri`cha threefold, because a tress is usually formed by interlacing three pieces; akin to trei^s three. Se]

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

The Sands of Dee 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: Charles Kingsley, The Sands of Dee, in Poems (1819–1875), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #66619, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/obev-charles-kingsley/the-sands-of-dee.html, id L16226.

Form and metre

The Sands of Dee is 24 lines in 4 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AAABAB. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 97%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.4 syllables.

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 AAABAB home^A · home^A · home^A · dee^B · foam^A · she^B
2 AAABAB sand^A · sand^A · sand^A · see^B · land^A · she^B
3 AAABAB hair^A · hair^A · hair^A · sea^B · fair^A · dee^B
4 AAABAB foam^A · foam^A · foam^A · sea^B · home^A · dee^B

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 Mary, go and call the cattle home,	10	·/˘····/˘·
And call the cattle home,	6	···/˘·
And call the cattle home,	6	···/˘·
Across the sands of Dee.’	6	˘/····
The western wind was wild and dark with foam,	10	·/˘·······
And all alone went she.	6	··˘/··
The western tide crept up along the sand,	10	·/˘···˘/··
And o’er and o’er the sand,	6	······
And round and round the sand,	6	······
As far as eye could see.	6	······
The rolling mist came down and hid the land:	10	·/˘·······
And never home came she.	6	·/˘···
‘O is it weed, or fish, or floating hair--	10	·······/˘·
A tress of golden hair,	6	···/˘·
A drownèd maiden’s hair,	5	··/˘·
Above the nets at sea?’	6	······
Was never salmon yet that shone so fair	9	·//˘·····
Among the stakes of Dee.	6	······
They row’d her in across the rolling foam,	10	····˘/·/˘·
The cruel crawling foam,	6	·/˘/˘·
The cruel hungry foam,	6	·/˘/˘·
To her grave beside the sea.	7	···˘/··
But still the boatmen hear her call the cattle home,	12	·········/˘·
Across the sands of Dee.	6	˘/····

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.

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