West London
Crouched on the pavement, close by Belgrave Square,A tramp I saw, ill, moody, and tongue-tied;A babe was in her arms, and at her sideA girl; their clothes were rags, their feet were bare.
Some laboring-men, whose work lay somewhere there,Passed opposite; she touched her girl, who hiedAcross, and begged, and came back satisfied.The rich she had let pass with frozen stare.
Thought I, “Above her state this spirit towers;She will not ask of aliens, but of friends,Of sharers in a common human fate.
She turns from that cold succor, which attendsThe unknown little from the unknowing great,And points us to a better time than ours.”
Words in this poem
- crouched a.
- Marked with the sign of the cross. Crouched friar. See Crutched friar, under Crutched.
- babe n.
- An infant; a young child of either sex; a baby. [Cf. Ir. bab, baban, W. baban, maban.]
- laboring a.
- That labors; performing labor; esp., performing coarse, heavy work, not requiring skill also, set apart for labor; as, laboring days.
- somewhere adv.
- In some place unknown or not specified; in one place or another.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
West London 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, West London, in Poems (1849–1867), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #54985, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/arnold-poems/west-london.html, id L06981.
Form and metre
West London is 14 lines in 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 21% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ABBA squareA · tiedB · sideB · bareA
- 2 A-BA thereA · hied · satisfiedB · stareA
- 3 CDE towersC · friendsD · fateE
- 4 DEC attendsD · greatE · oursC
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Crouched on the pavement, close by Belgrave Square, | 10 | ···/˘··/·· |
| A tramp I saw, ill, moody, and tongue-tied; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| A babe was in her arms, and at her side | 10 | ·········· |
| A girl; their clothes were rags, their feet were bare. | 10 | ·········· |
| Some laboring-men, whose work lay somewhere there, | 10 | ·/˘····/·· |
| Passed opposite; she touched her girl, who hied | 10 | ·/˘˘······ |
| Across, and begged, and came back satisfied. | 10 | ˘/·····/˘· |
| The rich she had let pass with frozen stare. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Thought I, “Above her state this spirit towers; | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| She will not ask of aliens, but of friends, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Of sharers in a common human fate. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| She turns from that cold succor, which attends | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| The unknown little from the unknowing great, | 11 | ·˘//˘··˘/˘· |
| And points us to a better time than ours.” | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
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.