Lonely Burial
There were not many at that lonely place,Where two scourged hills met in a little plain.The wind cried loud in gusts, then low again.Three pines strained darkly, runners in a raceUnseen by any. Toward the further woodsA dim harsh noise of voices rose and ceased.-- We were most silent in those solitudes --Then, sudden as a flame, the black-robed priest,
The clotted earth piled roughly up aboutThe hacked red oblong of the new-made thing,Short words in swordlike Latin -- and a routOf dreams most impotent, unwearying.Then, like a blind door shut on a carouse,The terrible bareness of the soul's last house.
Words in this poem
- unseen a.
- Not seen or discovered.
- piled a.
- Having a pile or point; pointed. [From 2d Pile.]
- bareness n.
- The state of being bare.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Lonely Burial is in the public domain. This text is taken from Young Adventure: A Book of Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #312; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Stephen Vincent Benét, Lonely Burial, in Young Adventure (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #312, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/benet-young-adventure/lonely-burial.html, id L13387.
Form and metre
Lonely Burial is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 29% 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-C-C placeA · plainB · againB · raceA · woods · ceasedC · solitudes · priestC
- 2 ABAB-- aboutA · thingB · routA · unwearyingB · carouse · house
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 |
|---|---|---|
| There were not many at that lonely place, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Where two scourged hills met in a little plain. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The wind cried loud in gusts, then low again. | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Three pines strained darkly, runners in a race | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Unseen by any. Toward the further woods | 11 | ˘/·/˘···/˘· |
| A dim harsh noise of voices rose and ceased. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| -- We were most silent in those solitudes -- | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Then, sudden as a flame, the black-robed priest, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| The clotted earth piled roughly up about | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| The hacked red oblong of the new-made thing, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Short words in swordlike Latin -- and a rout | 10 | ···/·/˘··· |
| Of dreams most impotent, unwearying. | 9 | ···/˘˘··· |
| Then, like a blind door shut on a carouse, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| The terrible bareness of the soul's last house. | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
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.