Together
Splashing along the boggy woods all day,And over brambled hedge and holding clay,I shall not think of him:But when the watery fields grow brown and dim,And hounds have lost their fox, and horses tire,I know that he'll be with me on my wayHome through the darkness to the evening fire.
He's jumped each stile along the glistening lanes;His hand will be upon the mud-soaked reins;Hearing the saddle creak,He'll wonder if the frost will come next week.I shall forget him in the morning light;And while we gallop on he will not speak:But at the stable-door he'll say good-night.
Words in this poem
- brambled a.
- Overgrown with brambles.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- stile n.
- A pin set on the face of a dial, to cast a shadow; a style. See Style. Moxon. [See Style.]
- creak v. i.
- To make a prolonged sharp grating or ssqueaking sound, as by the friction of hard substances; as, shoes creak. [OE. creken, prob. of imitative origin; cf. E. crack, and. D. kreiken to crackle, chirp.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Together is in the public domain. This text is taken from Counter-Attack and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #8930; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Siegfried Sassoon, Together, in Counter-Attack and Other Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8930, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/sassoon-counter-attack/together.html, id L04725.
Form and metre
Together is 14 lines in 2 stanzas of 7 lines each. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.6 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 7% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 AABBCAC dayA · clayA · himB · dimB · tireC · wayA · fireC
- 2 AABBCBC lanesA · reinsA · creakB · weekB · lightC · speakB · nightC
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Splashing along the boggy woods all day, | 10 | /˘˘/·/˘··· |
| And over brambled hedge and holding clay, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| I shall not think of him: | 6 | ······ |
| But when the watery fields grow brown and dim, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And hounds have lost their fox, and horses tire, | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| I know that he'll be with me on my way | 10 | ·········· |
| Home through the darkness to the evening fire. | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
| He's jumped each stile along the glistening lanes; | 10 | ····˘/·/˘· |
| His hand will be upon the mud-soaked reins; | 10 | ·········· |
| Hearing the saddle creak, | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| He'll wonder if the frost will come next week. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| I shall forget him in the morning light; | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| And while we gallop on he will not speak: | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| But at the stable-door he'll say good-night. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
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.