A Boy’s Song
Where the pools are bright and deep,Where the gray trout lies asleep,Up the river and o’er the lea,That’s the way for Billy and me.
Where the blackbird sings the latest,Where the hawthorn blooms the sweetest,Where the nestlings chirp and flee,That’s the way for Billy and me.
Where the mowers mow the cleanest,Where the hay lies thick and greenest,There to trace the homeward bee,That’s the way for Billy and me.
Where the hazel bank is steepest,Where the shadow falls the deepest,Where the clustering nuts fall free.That’s the way for Billy and me.
Why the boys should drive away,Little sweet maidens from the play,Or love to banter and fight so well,That’s the thing I never could tell.
But this I know, I love to play,Through the meadow, among the hay;Up the water and o’er the lea,That’s the way for Billy and me.
Words in this poem
- billy n.
- A club; esp., a policeman's club.
- homeward a.
- Being in the direction of home; as, the homeward way.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Boy’s Song is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems Every Child Should Know The What-Every-Child-Should-Know-Library, Project Gutenberg ebook #16436; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Mary E. Burt, A Boy’s Song, in Poems Every Child Should Know (1904), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16436, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/poems-every-child/a-boy-s-song.html, id L25193.
Form and metre
A Boy’s Song is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABB. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
See other poems in trochaic tetrameter.
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 deepA · asleepA · leaB · meB
- 2 AABB latestA · sweetestA · fleeB · meB
- 3 AABB cleanestA · greenestA · beeB · meB
- 4 AABB steepestA · deepestA · freeB · meB
- 5 AABB awayA · playA · wellB · tellB
- 6 AABB playA · hayA · leaB · meB
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Where the pools are bright and deep, | 7 | ······· |
| Where the gray trout lies asleep, | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Up the river and o’er the lea, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| That’s the way for Billy and me. | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Where the blackbird sings the latest, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Where the hawthorn blooms the sweetest, | 8 | ··/···/˘ |
| Where the nestlings chirp and flee, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| That’s the way for Billy and me. | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Where the mowers mow the cleanest, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Where the hay lies thick and greenest, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| There to trace the homeward bee, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| That’s the way for Billy and me. | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Where the hazel bank is steepest, | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Where the shadow falls the deepest, | 8 | ··/···/˘ |
| Where the clustering nuts fall free. | 8 | ··/˘˘··· |
| That’s the way for Billy and me. | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Why the boys should drive away, | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Little sweet maidens from the play, | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| Or love to banter and fight so well, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| That’s the thing I never could tell. | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| But this I know, I love to play, | 8 | ········ |
| Through the meadow, among the hay; | 8 | ··/····· |
| Up the water and o’er the lea, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| That’s the way for Billy and me. | 8 | ····/˘·· |
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.