Midday
The wood is still,As here I sitMy heart drinks inThe peace of it.
A something stirsI know not where,Some quiet spiritIn the air.
O tall straight stems!O cool deep green!O hand unfelt!O face unseen!
Words in this poem
- unseen a.
- Not seen or discovered.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Midday is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems - First Series, Project Gutenberg ebook #37860; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Collings Squire, Midday, in Poems: First Series (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #37860, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/squire-poems/midday.html, id L23145.
Form and metre
Midday is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
See other poems in iambic dimeter.
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 -A-A still · sitA · in · itA
- 2 -A-A stirs · whereA · spirit · airA
- 3 -A-A stems · greenA · unfelt · unseenA
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 dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The wood is still, | 4 | ···· |
| As here I sit | 4 | ···· |
| My heart drinks in | 4 | ···· |
| The peace of it. | 4 | ···· |
| A something stirs | 4 | ·/˘· |
| I know not where, | 4 | ···· |
| Some quiet spirit | 5 | ·/˘/˘ |
| In the air. | 3 | ··· |
| O tall straight stems! | 4 | ···· |
| O cool deep green! | 4 | ···· |
| O hand unfelt! | 4 | ···· |
| O face unseen! | 4 | ··˘/ |
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.