Cavalry Crossing a Ford
A line in long array where they wind betwixt green islands,They take a serpentine course, their arms flash in the sun--hark tothe musical clank,Behold the silvery river, in it the splashing horses loitering stopto drink,Behold the brown-faced men, each group, each person a picture, thenegligent rest on the saddles,Some emerge on the opposite bank, others are just entering the ford--while,Scarlet and blue and snowy white,The guidon flags flutter gayly in the wind.
Words in this poem
- betwixt prep.
- In the space which separates; between. [OE. betwix, bitwix, rarely bitwixt, AS. betweox, betweohs, betweoh, betwih; pref. be- by + a form fr. AS. twa two. See Between.]
- clank n.
- A sharp, brief, ringing sound, made by a collision of metallic or other sonorous bodies; -- usually expressing a duller or less resounding sound than clang, and a deeper and stronger sound than clink. [Akin to clink, and of imitative origin; cf. G. klang sound, D. klank. Cf. Clang.]
- snowy a.
- White like snow.
- gayly adv.
- With mirth and frolic; merrily; blithely; gleefully.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Cavalry Crossing a Ford is in the public domain. This text is taken from Leaves of Grass, Project Gutenberg ebook #1322; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Walt Whitman, Cavalry Crossing a Ford, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/cavalry-crossing-a-ford.html, id L03945.
Form and metre
Cavalry Crossing a Ford is 10 lines in a single stanza. 73% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 11.6 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 30% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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---- islands · toA · clank · stop · drink · theA · saddles · while · white · wind
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| A line in long array where they wind betwixt green islands, | 14 | ····˘/···˘/·/˘ |
| They take a serpentine course, their arms flash in the sun--hark to | 15 | ···/˘·········· |
| the musical clank, | 5 | ·/˘˘· |
| Behold the silvery river, in it the splashing horses loitering stop | 19 | ˘/·/˘˘/˘···/˘/˘/˘˘· |
| to drink, | 2 | ·· |
| Behold the brown-faced men, each group, each person a picture, the | 15 | ˘/·······/˘·/˘· |
| negligent rest on the saddles, | 8 | /˘˘···/˘ |
| Some emerge on the opposite bank, others are just entering the ford--while, | 19 | ·˘/··/˘˘·/˘··/˘˘··· |
| Scarlet and blue and snowy white, | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| The guidon flags flutter gayly in the wind. | 11 | ·/˘·/˘/˘··· |
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.