The beasts in field are glad, and have not wit
The beasts in field are glad, and have not witTo know why leapt their hearts when springtime shone.Man looks at his own bliss, considers it,Weighs it with curious fingers; and 'tis gone.
Words in this poem
- springtime n.
- The season of spring; springtide.
- curious a.
- Difficult to please or satisfy; solicitous to be correct; careful; scrupulous; nice; exact. [OF. curios, curius, F. curieux, L. curiosus careful, inquisitive, fr. cura care. See Cure.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The beasts in field are glad, and have not wit is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of William Watson, Project Gutenberg ebook #13179; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Watson, The beasts in field are glad, and have not wit, in The Poems of William Watson (1892–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #13179, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/watson-poems/the-beasts-in-field-are-glad-and-have-not-wit.html, id L26226.
Form and metre
The beasts in field are glad, and have not wit is 4 lines in a single stanza. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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- witA · shone · itA · gone
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The beasts in field are glad, and have not wit | 10 | ·········· |
| To know why leapt their hearts when springtime shone. | 10 | ·······/·· |
| Man looks at his own bliss, considers it, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Weighs it with curious fingers; and 'tis gone. | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
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.