Sowing
IT was a perfect dayFor sowing; justAs sweet and dry was the groundAs tobacco-dust.
I tasted deep the hourBetween the farOwl's chuckling first soft cryAnd the first star.
A long stretched hour it was;Nothing undoneRemained; the early seedsAll safely sown.
And now, hark at the rain,Windless and light,Half a kiss, half a tear,Saying good-night.
Words in this poem
- undone a.
- Not done or performed; neglected. [Pref. un- not + done.]
- windless a.
- Having no wind; calm.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sowing is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #22423; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edward Thomas, Sowing, in Poems (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22423, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/thomas-edward-poems/sowing.html, id L08154.
Form and metre
Sowing is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.2 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 50% 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.
- 1 -A-A day · justA · ground · dustA
- 2 -A-A hour · farA · cry · starA
- 4 -A-A rain · lightA · tear · nightA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| IT was a perfect day | 6 | ···˘/· |
| For sowing; just | 4 | ·/˘· |
| As sweet and dry was the ground | 7 | ······· |
| As tobacco-dust. | 5 | ·˘/·· |
| I tasted deep the hour | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| Between the far | 4 | ···· |
| Owl's chuckling first soft cry | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And the first star. | 4 | ···· |
| A long stretched hour it was; | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| Nothing undone | 4 | /˘˘/ |
| Remained; the early seeds | 6 | ˘/·/˘· |
| All safely sown. | 4 | ·/˘· |
| And now, hark at the rain, | 6 | ······ |
| Windless and light, | 4 | /˘·· |
| Half a kiss, half a tear, | 6 | ······ |
| Saying good-night. | 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.