Requiescat
Strew on her roses, roses,And never a spray of yew:In quiet she reposes;Ah! would that I did too!
Her mirth the world required;She bathed it in smiles of glee.But her heart was tired, tired,And now they let her be.
Her life was turning, turning,In mazes of heat and sound;But for peace her soul was yearning,And now peace laps her round.
Her cabined, ample spirit,It fluttered and failed for breath;To-night it doth inheritThe vasty hall of death.
Words in this poem
- glee n.
- Music; minstrelsy; entertainment.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Requiescat is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #54985; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Matthew Arnold, Requiescat, in Poems (1849–1867), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #54985, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/arnold-poems/requiescat.html, id L06946.
Form and metre
Requiescat is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.1 syllables. 8 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 6% 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.
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 rosesA · yewB · reposesA · tooB
- 2 ABAB requiredA · gleeB · tiredA · beB
- 3 ABAB turningA · soundB · yearningA · roundB
- 4 -A-A spirit · breathA · inherit · deathA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Strew on her roses, roses, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| And never a spray of yew: | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| In quiet she reposes; | 7 | ·/˘·/·˘ |
| Ah! would that I did too! | 6 | ······ |
| Her mirth the world required; | 8 | ····˘/˘˘ |
| She bathed it in smiles of glee. | 8 | ··˘····· |
| But her heart was tired, tired, | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| And now they let her be. | 6 | ······ |
| Her life was turning, turning, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| In mazes of heat and sound; | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| But for peace her soul was yearning, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| And now peace laps her round. | 6 | ······ |
| Her cabined, ample spirit, | 8 | ·/˘˘/˘/˘ |
| It fluttered and failed for breath; | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| To-night it doth inherit | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| The vasty hall of death. | 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.