◡—◡———◡◡◡—
There is a syncopation by which — — and ◡ ◡ combine (the natural syllabic length of o'er helping considerably) without destroying the fundamental rhythm. In the fourth line, instead of
◡—◡—◡—
we have
◡ — ◡ ‸ ◡ ◡ —
... to dark-ness and to me,—
the pause being supported by the meaning as well as by the structure of the verse. Alliteration is appropriately inconspicuous; it is limited to plowman ... plods and the conventional weary way. The consonance is significant. The most frequently repeated consonantal sounds are: l 10, d 9, r[78] 8, th 6, n 6, and w 5; that is, of the seventy consonantal sounds (counting th as one, p and l as two sounds) in the stanza, thirty-five, or one-half, are the comparatively soft sounds l, r, th, n, w. From the point of view of the line, a tabulation shows two or more occurrences in each line of—
| 1 | — | TH | R | T | L | ||||||
| 2 | — | TH | R | L | D | ||||||
| 3 | — | R | L | D | P | M | W | H | |||
| 4 | — | R | T | L | D | N |
That is, there is a kind of RTLD motif throughout the stanza. The assonance is even more striking. The stressed vowel sounds (which are of course the most important[79]) line by line are as follows:[80]
| ŭR | ō | ĕ | ā | ē |
| ō | ŭR | ō | ō | ī |
| au | ō | ŏ | ī | ē |
| ī | ŭR | ā | ī |
Here the five ō-sounds and four ī-sounds and three ŭ^R-sounds are noticeable.