The Wind
The wind went forth o'er land and seaLoud and free;Foaming waves leapt up to meet it,Stately pines bowed down to greet it;While the wailing seaAnd the forest's murmured sighJoined the cryOf the wind that swept o'er land and sea.
The wind that blew upon the seaFierce and free,Cast the bark upon the shore,Whence it sailed the night beforeFull of hope and glee;And the cry of pain and deathWas but a breath,Through the wind that roared upon the sea.
The wind was whispering on the leaTenderly;But the white rose felt it pass,And the fragile stalks of grassShook with fear to seeAll her trembling petals shed,As it fled,So gently by,--the wind upon the lea.
Blow, thou wind, upon the seaFierce and free,And a gentler message send,Where frail flowers and grasses bend,On the sunny lea;For thy bidding still is one,Be it doneIn tenderness or wrath, on land or sea!
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- glee n.
- Music; minstrelsy; entertainment.
- tenderly adv.
- In a tender manner; with tenderness; mildly; gently; softly; in a manner not to injure or give pain; with pity or affection; kindly.
- shook v. t.
- To pack, as staves, in a shook.
- sunny a.
- Of or pertaining to the sun; proceeding from, or resembling the sun; hence, shining; bright; brilliant; radiant.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Wind is in the public domain. This text is taken from Legends and Lyrics. Part 2, Project Gutenberg ebook #2304; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Adelaide Anne Procter, The Wind, in Legends and Lyrics: Second Series (1861), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #2304, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/procter-legends-lyrics/the-wind.html, id L21798.
Form and metre
The Wind is 32 lines in 4 stanzas of 8 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABBACCA, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%).
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 AABBACCA seaA · freeA · itB · itB · seaA · sighC · cryC · seaA
- 2 AABBACCA seaA · freeA · shoreB · beforeB · gleeA · deathC · breathC · seaA
- 3 A-BBACCA leaA · tenderly · passB · grassB · seeA · shedC · fledC · leaA
- 4 AABBACCA seaA · freeA · sendB · bendB · leaA · oneC · doneC · seaA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The wind went forth o'er land and sea | 8 | ········ |
| Loud and free; | 3 | ··· |
| Foaming waves leapt up to meet it, | 8 | /˘······ |
| Stately pines bowed down to greet it; | 8 | /˘······ |
| While the wailing sea | 5 | ··/˘· |
| And the forest's murmured sigh | 8 | ··/˘/˘˘· |
| Joined the cry | 3 | ··· |
| Of the wind that swept o'er land and sea. | 9 | ········· |
| The wind that blew upon the sea | 8 | ········ |
| Fierce and free, | 3 | ··· |
| Cast the bark upon the shore, | 7 | ······· |
| Whence it sailed the night before | 8 | ···˘···· |
| Full of hope and glee; | 5 | ····· |
| And the cry of pain and death | 7 | ······· |
| Was but a breath, | 4 | ···· |
| Through the wind that roared upon the sea. | 9 | ········· |
| The wind was whispering on the lea | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Tenderly; | 3 | /˘˘ |
| But the white rose felt it pass, | 7 | ······· |
| And the fragile stalks of grass | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Shook with fear to see | 5 | ····· |
| All her trembling petals shed, | 8 | ··/˘˘/˘· |
| As it fled, | 3 | ··· |
| So gently by,--the wind upon the lea. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Blow, thou wind, upon the sea | 7 | ······· |
| Fierce and free, | 3 | ··· |
| And a gentler message send, | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Where frail flowers and grasses bend, | 8 | ··/˘·/˘· |
| On the sunny lea; | 5 | ··/˘· |
| For thy bidding still is one, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Be it done | 3 | ··· |
| In tenderness or wrath, on land or sea! | 9 | ·/˘······ |
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.