The Jack-Rabbit
In the morning,The jack-rabbit sang to the Arkansaw.He carolled in caracolesOn the feat sandbars.
The black man said,“Now, grandmother,Crochet me this buzzardOn your winding-sheet,And do not forget his wry neckAfter the winter.”
The black man said,“Look out, O caroller,The entrails of the buzzardAre rattling.”
Words in this poem
- crochet n.
- A kind of knitting done by means of a hooked needle, with worsted, silk, or cotton; crochet work. Commonly used adjectively. [F. crochet small hook. See Croche.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Jack-Rabbit is in the public domain. This text is taken from Harmonium, Project Gutenberg ebook #78743; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Wallace Stevens, The Jack-Rabbit, in Harmonium (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #78743, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/stevens-harmonium/the-jack-rabbit.html, id L01032.
Form and metre
The Jack-Rabbit is 14 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.6 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 29% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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.
- 2 A-A--- saidA · grandmother · buzzardA · sheet · neck · winter
- 3 A-A- saidA · caroller · buzzardA · rattling
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| In the morning, | 4 | ··/˘ |
| The jack-rabbit sang to the Arkansaw. | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| He carolled in caracoles | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| On the feat sandbars. | 5 | ···/· |
| The black man said, | 4 | ···· |
| “Now, grandmother, | 4 | ·/·˘ |
| Crochet me this buzzard | 6 | ˘/··/˘ |
| On your winding-sheet, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| And do not forget his wry neck | 8 | ···˘/··· |
| After the winter.” | 5 | ···/˘ |
| The black man said, | 4 | ···· |
| “Look out, O caroller, | 6 | ······ |
| The entrails of the buzzard | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| Are rattling.” | 3 | ·/˘ |
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.