A Maid Who Died Old
Frail, shrunken face, so pinched and worn,That life has carved with care and doubt!So weary waiting, night and morn,For that which never came about!Pale lamp, so utterly forlorn,In which God's light at last is out.
Gray hair, that lies so thin and primOn either side the sunken brows!And soldered eyes, so deep and dim,No word of man could now arouse!And hollow hands, so virgin slim,Forever clasped in silent vows!
Poor breasts! that God designed for love,For baby lips to kiss and press;That never felt, yet dreamed thereof,The human touch, the child caress--That lie like shriveled blooms aboveThe heart's long-perished happiness.
O withered body, Nature gaveFor purposes of death and birth,That never knew, and could but craveThose things perhaps that make life worth,--Rest now, alas! within the grave,Sad shell that served no end of Earth.
Words in this poem
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
- forlorn a.
- Deserted abandoned; lost. [OE., p.p. of forlesen to lose utterly, AS. forleósan (p.p. forloren); pref. for- + leósan (in comp.) to lose; cf. D. verliezen to lose, G. verlieren, Sw. förlor]
- caress n.
- An act of endearment; any act or expression of affection; an embracing, or touching, with tenderness. [F. caresse, It. carezza, LL. caritia dearness, fr. L. carus dear. See Charity.]
- crave v. t.
- To ask with earnestness or importunity; to ask with submission or humility; to beg; to entreat; to beseech; to implore. [AS. crafian; akin to Icel. krefia, Sw. kr, Dan. kr.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Maid Who Died Old is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #7796; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Madison Julius Cawein, A Maid Who Died Old, in Poems (1911), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7796, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/cawein-poems/a-maid-who-died-old.html, id L10944.
Form and metre
A Maid Who Died Old is 24 lines in 4 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 17% 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 ABABAB wornA · doubtB · mornA · aboutB · forlornA · outB
- 2 ABABAB primA · browsB · dimA · arouseB · slimA · vowsB
- 3 ABABAB loveA · pressB · thereofA · caressB · aboveA · happinessB
- 4 ABABAB gaveA · birthB · craveA · worthB · graveA · earthB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Frail, shrunken face, so pinched and worn, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| That life has carved with care and doubt! | 8 | ········ |
| So weary waiting, night and morn, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| For that which never came about! | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Pale lamp, so utterly forlorn, | 8 | ···/˘˘˘/ |
| In which God's light at last is out. | 8 | ········ |
| Gray hair, that lies so thin and prim | 8 | ········ |
| On either side the sunken brows! | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And soldered eyes, so deep and dim, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| No word of man could now arouse! | 8 | ······˘/ |
| And hollow hands, so virgin slim, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Forever clasped in silent vows! | 8 | ˘/˘··/˘· |
| Poor breasts! that God designed for love, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| For baby lips to kiss and press; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| That never felt, yet dreamed thereof, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The human touch, the child caress-- | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| That lie like shriveled blooms above | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The heart's long-perished happiness. | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| O withered body, Nature gave | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| For purposes of death and birth, | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| That never knew, and could but crave | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Those things perhaps that make life worth,-- | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Rest now, alas! within the grave, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| Sad shell that served no end of Earth. | 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.