The New House A-Getten Wold
Ah! when our wedded life begun,Theaese clean-wall'd house of ours wer new;Wi' thatch as yollor as the zunAvore the cloudless sky o' blue;The sky o' blue that then did boundThe blue-hilled worold's flow'ry ground.
An' we've a-vound it weather-brown'd,As Spring-tide blossoms oben'd white,Or Fall did shed, on zunburnt ground,Red apples from their leafy height:Their leafy height, that Winter soonLeft leafless to the cool-feaeced moon.
An' rain-bred moss ha' stain'd wi' greenThe smooth-feaeced wall's white-morter'd streaks,The while our childern zot betweenOur seats avore the fleaeme's red peaks:The fleaeme's red peaks, till axan whiteDid quench em vor the long-sleep'd night.
The bloom that woonce did overspreadYour rounded cheaek, as time went by,A-shrinken to a patch o' red,Did feaede so soft's the evenen sky:The evenen sky, my faithful wife,O' days as feaeir's our happy life.
Words in this poem
- wedded a.
- Joined in wedlock; married.
- cloudless a.
- Without a cloud; clear; bright.
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The New House A-Getten Wold is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect, Project Gutenberg ebook #21785; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Barnes, The New House A-Getten Wold, in Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect (1844–1862), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #21785, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/barnes-dorset/the-new-house-a-getten-wold.html, id L02282.
Form and metre
The New House A-Getten Wold is 24 lines in 4 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABCC, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.1 syllables. 29% 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 -A-ABB begun · newA · zun · blueA · boundB · groundB
- 2 ABABCC brown'dA · whiteB · groundA · heightB · soonC · moonC
- 3 ABABCC greenA · streaksB · betweenA · peaksB · whiteC · nightC
- 4 ABABCC overspreadA · byB · redA · skyB · wifeC · lifeC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Ah! when our wedded life begun, | 8 | ··//˘·˘/ |
| Theaese clean-wall'd house of ours wer new; | 8 | ·····/·· |
| Wi' thatch as yollor as the zun | 8 | ········ |
| Avore the cloudless sky o' blue; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The sky o' blue that then did bound | 8 | ········ |
| The blue-hilled worold's flow'ry ground. | 8 | ········ |
| An' we've a-vound it weather-brown'd, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| As Spring-tide blossoms oben'd white, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Or Fall did shed, on zunburnt ground, | 8 | ········ |
| Red apples from their leafy height: | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Their leafy height, that Winter soon | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Left leafless to the cool-feaeced moon. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| An' rain-bred moss ha' stain'd wi' green | 8 | ········ |
| The smooth-feaeced wall's white-morter'd streaks, | 8 | ········ |
| The while our childern zot between | 8 | ··/····· |
| Our seats avore the fleaeme's red peaks: | 8 | /······· |
| The fleaeme's red peaks, till axan white | 8 | ········ |
| Did quench em vor the long-sleep'd night. | 8 | ········ |
| The bloom that woonce did overspread | 8 | ········ |
| Your rounded cheaek, as time went by, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| A-shrinken to a patch o' red, | 8 | ········ |
| Did feaede so soft's the evenen sky: | 9 | ········· |
| The evenen sky, my faithful wife, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| O' days as feaeir's our happy life. | 8 | ····//˘· |
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.