The Sandpiper
Across the lonely beach we flit,One little sandpiper and I,And fast I gather, bit by bit,The scattered driftwood, bleached and dry.The wild waves reach their hands for it,The wild wind raves, the tide runs high,As up and down the beach we flit,One little sandpiper and I.
Above our heads the sullen cloudsScud, black and swift, across the sky;Like silent ghosts in misty shroudsStand out the white lighthouses high.Almost as far as eye can reachI see the close-reefed vessels fly,As fast we flit along the beach,One little sandpiper and I.
I watch him as he skims along,Uttering his sweet and mournful cry;He starts not at my fitful song,Nor flash of fluttering drapery.He has no thought of any wrong,He scans me with a fearless eye;Stanch friends are we, well tried and strong,The little sandpiper and I.
Comrade, where wilt thou be to-night,When the loosed storm breaks furiously?My driftwood fire will burn so bright!To what warm shelter canst thou fly?I do not fear for thee, though wrothThe tempest rushes through the sky;For are we not God’s children both,Thou, little sandpiper, and I?
Words in this poem
- flit a.
- Nimble; quick; swift. See Fleet.
- driftwood n.
- Wood drifted or floated by water.
- bleached a.
- Whitened; make white.
- sullen a.
- Lonely; solitary; desolate. Wyclif (Job iii. 14). [OE. solein, solain, lonely, sullen; through Old French fr. (assumed) LL. solanus solitary, fr. L. solus alone. See Sole, a.]
- scud v. i.
- To move swiftly; especially, to move as if driven forward by something. [Dan. skyde to shoot, shove, push, akin to skud shot, gunshot, a shoot, young bough, and to E. shoot. sq. root159. See Shoot.]
- fitful a.
- Full of fits; irregularly variable; impulsive and unstable. [From 7th Fit.]
- wroth a.
- Full of wrath; angry; incensed; much exasperated; wrathful. [OE. wroth, wrap, AS. wraedh wroth, crooked, bad; akin to wriedhan to writhe, and to OS. wreedhangry, D. wreed cruel, OHG. reid twisted, Icel. reiedhr angry, Dan]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Sandpiper 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, The Sandpiper, in Poems Every Child Should Know (1904), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16436, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/poems-every-child/the-sandpiper.html, id L25208.
Form and metre
The Sandpiper is 32 lines in 4 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See other poems in iambic 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 ABABABAB flitA · iB · bitA · dryB · itA · highB · flitA · iB
- 2 ABABCBCB cloudsA · skyB · shroudsA · highB · reachC · flyB · beachC · iB
- 3 ABA-ABAB alongA · cryB · songA · drapery · wrongA · eyeB · strongA · iB
- 4 A-ABCBCB nightA · furiously · brightA · flyB · wrothC · skyB · bothC · iB
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Across the lonely beach we flit, | 8 | ˘/·/˘··· |
| One little sandpiper and I, | 7 | ·/˘/˘·· |
| And fast I gather, bit by bit, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The scattered driftwood, bleached and dry. | 8 | ·/˘/···· |
| The wild waves reach their hands for it, | 8 | ········ |
| The wild wind raves, the tide runs high, | 8 | ········ |
| As up and down the beach we flit, | 8 | ········ |
| One little sandpiper and I. | 7 | ·/˘/˘·· |
| Above our heads the sullen clouds | 8 | ··/··/˘· |
| Scud, black and swift, across the sky; | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Like silent ghosts in misty shrouds | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Stand out the white lighthouses high. | 8 | ····/·˘· |
| Almost as far as eye can reach | 8 | /······· |
| I see the close-reefed vessels fly, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| As fast we flit along the beach, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| One little sandpiper and I. | 7 | ·/˘/˘·· |
| I watch him as he skims along, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Uttering his sweet and mournful cry; | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| He starts not at my fitful song, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Nor flash of fluttering drapery. | 9 | ···/˘˘/˘˘ |
| He has no thought of any wrong, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| He scans me with a fearless eye; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Stanch friends are we, well tried and strong, | 8 | ········ |
| The little sandpiper and I. | 7 | ·/˘/˘·· |
| Comrade, where wilt thou be to-night, | 8 | /······· |
| When the loosed storm breaks furiously? | 9 | ·····/˘˘˘ |
| My driftwood fire will burn so bright! | 8 | ·/·/···· |
| To what warm shelter canst thou fly? | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| I do not fear for thee, though wroth | 8 | ········ |
| The tempest rushes through the sky; | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| For are we not God’s children both, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Thou, little sandpiper, and I? | 7 | ·/˘/˘·· |
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.