The House Where We Were Wed
I've been to the old farm-house, good-wife,Where you and I were wed;Where the love was born to our two heartsThat now lies cold and dead.Where a long-kept secret to you I told,In the yellow beams of the moon,And we forged our vows out of love's own gold,To be broken so soon, so soon!
I passed through all the old rooms, good-wife;I wandered on and on;I followed the steps of a flitting ghost,The ghost of a love that is gone.And he led me out to the arbor, wife,Where with myrtles I twined your hair;And he seated me down on the old stone step,And left me musing there.
The sun went down as it used to do,And sunk in the sea of night;The two bright stars that we called oursCame slowly unto my sight;But the one that was mine went under a cloud--Went under a cloud, alone;And a tear that I wouldn't have shed for the world,Fell down on the old gray stone.
But there be words can ne'er be unsaid,And deeds can ne'er be undone,Except perhaps in another world,Where life's once more begun.And maybe some time in the time to come,When a few more years are sped,We'll love again as we used to love,In the house where we were wed.
Words in this poem
- flitting n.
- A flying with lightness and celerity; a fluttering.
- ghost n.
- The spirit; the soul of man. [OE. gast, gost, soul, spirit, AS. gast breath, spirit, soul; akin to OS. g spirit, soul, D. geest, G. geist, and prob. to E. gaze, ghastly.]
- arbor n.
- A kind of latticework formed of, or covered with, vines, branches of trees, or other plants, for shade; a bower. Sir P. [OE. herber, herbere, properly a garden of herbs, F. herbier, fr. L. herbarium. See Herb, and cf. Herbarium.]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- undone a.
- Not done or performed; neglected. [Pref. un- not + done.]
- maybe adv.
- Perhaps; possibly; peradventure. [For it may be.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The House Where We Were Wed is in the public domain. This text is taken from Farm Ballads, Project Gutenberg ebook #9500; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Will Carleton, The House Where We Were Wed, in Farm Ballads (1873), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9500, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/carleton-farm-ballads/the-house-where-we-were-wed.html, id L23281.
Form and metre
The House Where We Were Wed is 32 lines in 4 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 77%).
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-ABCBC wife · wedA · hearts · deadA · toldB · moonC · goldB · soonC
- 2 AB-BAC-C wifeA · onB · ghost · goneB · wifeA · hairC · step · thereC
- 3 -A-A-B-B do · nightA · ours · sightA · cloud · aloneB · world · stoneB
- 4 AB-B-A-A unsaidA · undoneB · world · begunB · come · spedA · love · wedA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I've been to the old farm-house, good-wife, | 9 | ········· |
| Where you and I were wed; | 6 | ······ |
| Where the love was born to our two hearts | 10 | ······/˘·· |
| That now lies cold and dead. | 6 | ······ |
| Where a long-kept secret to you I told, | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| In the yellow beams of the moon, | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| And we forged our vows out of love's own gold, | 11 | ···/˘······ |
| To be broken so soon, so soon! | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| I passed through all the old rooms, good-wife; | 9 | ········· |
| I wandered on and on; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| I followed the steps of a flitting ghost, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| The ghost of a love that is gone. | 8 | ········ |
| And he led me out to the arbor, wife, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Where with myrtles I twined your hair; | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| And he seated me down on the old stone step, | 11 | ··/˘······· |
| And left me musing there. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The sun went down as it used to do, | 9 | ········· |
| And sunk in the sea of night; | 7 | ······· |
| The two bright stars that we called ours | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Came slowly unto my sight; | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| But the one that was mine went under a cloud-- | 11 | ··········· |
| Went under a cloud, alone; | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| And a tear that I wouldn't have shed for the world, | 12 | ·····/˘····· |
| Fell down on the old gray stone. | 7 | ······· |
| But there be words can ne'er be unsaid, | 9 | ·······˘/ |
| And deeds can ne'er be undone, | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Except perhaps in another world, | 9 | ··˘/·˘/˘· |
| Where life's once more begun. | 6 | ····˘/ |
| And maybe some time in the time to come, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| When a few more years are sped, | 7 | ······· |
| We'll love again as we used to love, | 9 | ··˘/····· |
| In the house where we were wed. | 7 | ······· |
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.