The Ruin
These grey stones have rung with mirth and lordly carousel;Here proud kings mingled pōetry and ruddy wine.All hath pass'd long ago; nought but this rūin abideth,Sadly in eyeless trance gazing upon the river.Wouldst thou know who here visiteth, dwelleth and singeth also,Ask the swallows fl[=y]ing from sunny-wall'd Italy.
Words in this poem
- rung n.
- A floor timber in a ship. [OE. ronge, AS. hrung, a staff, rod, pole; akin to G. runge a short, thick piece of iron or wood, OD. ronghe a prop, support, Icel. röng a rib in a ship, Goth. H]
- sadly adv.
- Wearily; heavily; firmly.
- eyeless a.
- Without eyes; blind.
- sunny a.
- Of or pertaining to the sun; proceeding from, or resembling the sun; hence, shining; bright; brilliant; radiant.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Ruin is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of Robert Bridges, Excluding the Eight Dramas, Project Gutenberg ebook #37804; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Robert Bridges, The Ruin, in The Growth of Love, and Other Poems (1873–1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #37804, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bridges-shorter-poems/the-ruin.html, id L18507.
Form and metre
The Ruin is 6 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The lines average 12.7 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
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.
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| These grey stones have rung with mirth and lordly carousel; | 13 | ········/˘/˘· |
| Here proud kings mingled pōetry and ruddy wine. | 11 | ···/˘/˘·/˘· |
| All hath pass'd long ago; nought but this rūin abideth, | 12 | ····˘/····/˘ |
| Sadly in eyeless trance gazing upon the river. | 13 | /˘·/˘·/˘···/˘ |
| Wouldst thou know who here visiteth, dwelleth and singeth also, | 14 | ·····/˘/˘·/˘/˘ |
| Ask the swallows fl[=y]ing from sunny-wall'd Italy. | 13 | ··/˘····/˘·/˘ |
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.