The Eagle and the Mole
Avoid the reeking herd,Shun the polluted flock,Live like that stoic bird,The eagle of the rock.
The huddled warmth of crowdsBegets and fosters hate;He keeps, above the clouds,His cliff inviolate.
When flocks are folded warm,And herds to shelter run,He sails above the storm,He stares into the sun.
If in the eagle's trackYour sinews cannot leap,Avoid the lathered pack,Turn from the steaming sheep.
If you would keep your soulFrom spotted sight or sound,Live like the velvet mole;Go burrow underground.
And there hold intercourseWith roots of trees and stones,With rivers at their source,And disembodied bones.
Words in this poem
- avoid v. t.
- To empty. Wyclif. [OF. esvuidier, es (L. ex) + vuidier, voidier, to empty. See Void, a.]
- inviolate a.
- Not violated; uninjured; unhurt; unbroken. [L. inviolatus. See In- not, and Violate.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Eagle and the Mole is in the public domain. This text is taken from Nets to Catch the Wind, Project Gutenberg ebook #6682; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Elinor Wylie, The Eagle and the Mole, in Nets to Catch the Wind (1921), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #6682, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/wylie-nets/the-eagle-and-the-mole.html, id L12754.
Form and metre
The Eagle and the Mole is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 17% 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 ABAB herdA · flockB · birdA · rockB
- 2 ABAB crowdsA · hateB · cloudsA · inviolateB
- 3 ABAB warmA · runB · stormA · sunB
- 4 ABAB trackA · leapB · packA · sheepB
- 5 ABAB soulA · soundB · moleA · undergroundB
- 6 ABAB intercourseA · stonesB · sourceA · bonesB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Avoid the reeking herd, | 6 | ˘/·/˘· |
| Shun the polluted flock, | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| Live like that stoic bird, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The eagle of the rock. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The huddled warmth of crowds | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Begets and fosters hate; | 6 | ˘/·/˘· |
| He keeps, above the clouds, | 6 | ······ |
| His cliff inviolate. | 6 | ··˘/˘˘ |
| When flocks are folded warm, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And herds to shelter run, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| He sails above the storm, | 6 | ······ |
| He stares into the sun. | 6 | ······ |
| If in the eagle's track | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Your sinews cannot leap, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Avoid the lathered pack, | 6 | ˘/·/˘· |
| Turn from the steaming sheep. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| If you would keep your soul | 6 | ······ |
| From spotted sight or sound, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Live like the velvet mole; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Go burrow underground. | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| And there hold intercourse | 6 | ···/˘· |
| With roots of trees and stones, | 6 | ······ |
| With rivers at their source, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And disembodied bones. | 6 | ·˘˘/˘· |
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.