The Hunter
In the flashes and black shadowsof Julythe days, locked in each other's arms,seem stillso that squirrels and colored birdsgo about at ease overthe branches and through the air.
Nowhere.Both sides grow older.
And you may be surenot one leaf will lift itselffrom the groundand become fast to a twig again.
Words in this poem
- nowhere adv.
- Not anywhere; not in any place or state; as, the book is nowhere to be found. [AS. nahwær. See No, and Where.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Hunter is in the public domain. This text is taken from Sour Grapes: A Book of Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #35667; 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 Carlos Williams, The Hunter, in Sour Grapes (1921), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #35667, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/williams-sour-grapes/the-hunter.html, id L01177.
Form and metre
The Hunter is 13 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.7 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 62% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See 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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| In the flashes and black shadows | 8 | ··/˘··/· |
| of July | 3 | ··/ |
| the days, locked in each other's arms, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| seem still | 2 | ·· |
| so that squirrels and colored birds | 8 | ··/˘·/˘· |
| go about at ease over | 7 | ······· |
| the branches and through the air. | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Nowhere. | 2 | /· |
| Both sides grow older. | 5 | ···/˘ |
| And you may be sure | 5 | ····· |
| not one leaf will lift itself | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| from the ground | 3 | ··· |
| and become fast to a twig again. | 9 | ·˘/····˘/ |
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.