A Reiver's Neck-Verse
Some die singing, and some die swinging,And weel mot a' they be:Some die playing, and some die praying,And I wot sae winna we, my dear,And I wot sae winna we.
Some die sailing, and some die wailing,And some die fair and free:Some die flyting, and some die fighting,But I for a fause love's fee, my dear,But I for a fause love's fee.
Some die laughing, and some die quaffing,And some die high on tree:Some die spinning, and some die sinning,But faggot and fire for ye, my dear,Faggot and fire for ye.
Some die weeping, and some die sleeping,And some die under sea:Some die ganging, and some die hanging,And a twine of a tow for me, my dear,A twine of a tow for me.
Words in this poem
- weel
- A kind of trap or snare for fish, made of twigs. Carew. [Prov. E. weel, weal, a wicker basket to catch eels; prob. akin to willow, and so called as made of willow twigs.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Reiver's Neck-Verse is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems and Ballads (Third Series) Taken from The Collected Poetical Works of Algernon Charles Swinburne—Vol. III, Project Gutenberg ebook #18726; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Algernon Charles Swinburne, A Reiver's Neck-Verse, in Poems and Ballads (1866), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18726, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/swinburne-poems-ballads/a-reiver-s-neck-verse.html, id L07105.
Form and metre
A Reiver's Neck-Verse is 20 lines in 4 stanzas of 5 lines each. The metre is anapaestic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 71%). 81% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.1 syllables. 7 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in anapaestic 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.
- 1 -A--A swinging · beA · praying · dear · weA
- 2 -A--A wailing · freeA · fighting · dear · feeA
- 3 ABA-B quaffingA · treeB · sinningA · dear · yeB
- 4 -A--A sleeping · seaA · hanging · dear · meA
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 anapaestic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Some die singing, and some die swinging, | 9 | ··/˘···/˘ |
| And weel mot a' they be: | 6 | ······ |
| Some die playing, and some die praying, | 9 | ··/˘···/˘ |
| And I wot sae winna we, my dear, | 9 | ········· |
| And I wot sae winna we. | 7 | ······· |
| Some die sailing, and some die wailing, | 9 | ··/˘···/˘ |
| And some die fair and free: | 6 | ······ |
| Some die flyting, and some die fighting, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| But I for a fause love's fee, my dear, | 9 | ········· |
| But I for a fause love's fee. | 7 | ······· |
| Some die laughing, and some die quaffing, | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| And some die high on tree: | 6 | ······ |
| Some die spinning, and some die sinning, | 9 | ··/˘···/˘ |
| But faggot and fire for ye, my dear, | 9 | ·/˘·/···· |
| Faggot and fire for ye. | 7 | /˘·/˘·· |
| Some die weeping, and some die sleeping, | 9 | ··/˘···/˘ |
| And some die under sea: | 6 | ······ |
| Some die ganging, and some die hanging, | 9 | ··/˘···/˘ |
| And a twine of a tow for me, my dear, | 10 | ·········· |
| A twine of a tow for me. | 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.