Two Pewits
UNDER the after-sunset skyTwo pewits sport and cry,More white than is the moon on highRiding the dark surge silently;More black than earth. Their cryIs the one sound under the sky.They alone move, now low, now high,And merrily they cryTo the mischievous Spring sky,Plunging earthward, tossing high,Over the ghost who wonders whySo merrily they cry and fly,Nor choose 'twixt earth and sky,While the moon's quarter silentlyRides, and earth rests as silently.
Words in this poem
- earthward adv.
- Toward the earth; -- opposed to heavenward or skyward.
- ghost n.
- The spirit; the soul of man. [OE. gast, gost, soul, spirit, AS. gast breath, spirit, soul; akin to OS. g spirit, soul, D. geest, G. geist, and prob. to E. gaze, ghastly.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Two Pewits 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, Two Pewits, in Poems (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22423, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/thomas-edward-poems/two-pewits.html, id L08136.
Form and metre
Two Pewits is 15 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 80% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 79%). 87% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.3 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 40% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 AAABAAAAAAAAABB skyA · cryA · highA · silentlyB · cryA · skyA · highA · cryA · skyA · highA · whyA · flyA · skyA · silentlyB · silentlyB
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| UNDER the after-sunset sky | 8 | ·····/·· |
| Two pewits sport and cry, | 6 | ······ |
| More white than is the moon on high | 8 | ········ |
| Riding the dark surge silently; | 8 | /˘···/˘˘ |
| More black than earth. Their cry | 6 | ······ |
| Is the one sound under the sky. | 8 | ········ |
| They alone move, now low, now high, | 8 | ·˘/····· |
| And merrily they cry | 6 | ·/˘˘·· |
| To the mischievous Spring sky, | 7 | ··/˘˘·· |
| Plunging earthward, tossing high, | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Over the ghost who wonders why | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| So merrily they cry and fly, | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| Nor choose 'twixt earth and sky, | 6 | ······ |
| While the moon's quarter silently | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| Rides, and earth rests as silently. | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
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.