Journeys Through Bookland, Volume 7 | Page 5

A poetic foot of three syllables which bears the accent on the
third syllable is called an anapestic foot. The meter of this poem, then
is anapestic tetrameter, varied by an added syllable in most of the
odd-numbered lines and by an iambic foot at the beginning of each
line.
Can you find any other poem in this volume in which the meter is the
same? Can you find such poems in other volumes?
FOOTNOTES:
[11-1] Samuel Woodworth, the author of this familiar song, was an
American, the editor of many publications and the writer of a great
many poems; but no one of the latter is now remembered, except The
Old Oaken Bucket.
[11-2] This means that the author remembers fondly the scenes of his
childhood, or remembers the things of which he was fond in his
childhood.
[11-3] As the term is used in the law-books, a person is an infant until
he is twenty-one years of age; though, probably the word infancy here
means the same as childhood.
[11-4] Let us picture a large mill-pond with a race running out of one
side of it past the old-fashioned mill, which has a big wooden water
wheel on the outside of it.
[11-5] The dairy house was probably a low, broad building through
which the water from the stream ran. The milkpans were set on low

shelves or in a trough so that the water could run around them and keep
the milk cool.
[12-6] If he could see the white-pebbled bottom of the well, it must
have been a shallow one, or perhaps merely a square box built around a
deep spring.
[12-7] Water is usually spoken of as an emblem of purity, not of truth;
but sometimes truth is spoken of as hiding at the bottom of a well.
[12-8] The curb is the square box usually built around the mouth of the
well to a height of a few feet, to protect the water from dirt. Sometimes
three of the sides are carried up to a height of six or eight feet, and a
roof is built over the whole, making a little house of the curb. The
fourth side is left open, except for two or three feet at the bottom. In
these old wells two buckets were often used. They were attached to a
rope which ran over a wheel suspended from the roof of the well house.
When a bucket was drawn up it was often rested on the low curb in
front, while people drank from it.
[13-9] Blushing goblet alludes to wine or some other liquor that has a
reddish color.
[13-10] Nectar was the drink of the old Greek gods, of whom Jupiter
was the chief.
[13-11] Situation and plantation do not rhyme well, and situation is
scarcely the right word to use. Location would be better, so far as the
meaning is concerned.
[Illustration]

BANNOCKBURN
ROBERT BRUCE'S ADDRESS TO HIS ARMY
By ROBERT BURNS

Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled; Scots, wham Bruce has aften led;
Welcome to your gory bed, Or to glorious victorie!
Now's the day and now's the hour-- See the front o' battle lour; See
approach proud Edward's power-- Edward! chains and slaverie!
Wha will be a traitor knave? Wha can fill a coward's grave? Wha sae
base as be a slave? Traitor! coward! turn and flee!
Wha for Scotland's king and law Freedom's sword will strongly draw!
Freeman stand or freeman fa', Caledonian! on wi' me!
By oppression's woes and pains! By our sons in servile chains! We will
drain our dearest veins, But they shall be--shall be free!
Lay the proud usurpers low! Tyrants fall in every foe! Liberty's in
every blow! Forward! let us do or die!
On pages 2, and 13, of this volume we talked about the different meters
in which poetry is written. In iambic poetry each foot contains two
syllables, the second of which is accented. There is another kind of foot
composed of two syllables. In this the accent falls on the first syllable.
Bannockburn gives examples of this. To illustrate, we will rewrite the
first stanza, using the words in their English form, and mark off the feet
and the accent:
Scots´, who | have´ with | Wal´-lace | bled´, Scots´, whom | Bruce´ has |
of´-ten | led´; Wel´-come | to´ your | go´-ry | bed´, Or´ to | glo´rious |
vic´-to | ry´.
Each one of these lines ends with an accented syllable, but that may be
disregarded in studying the feet. This foot is called the trochee, and it
will help you to remember it if you will think that the word tro´chee
has two syllables and is accented on the first. This poem, then, is in
trochaic trimeter, with added accented syllables