After Long Grief
There is a place hung o'er of summer boughsAnd dreamy skies wherein the gray hawk sleeps;Where water flows, within whose lazy deeps,Like silvery prisms where the sunbeams drowse,The minnows twinkle; where the bells of cowsTinkle the stillness; and the bobwhite keepsCalling from meadows where the reaper reaps,And children's laughter haunts an oldtime house:A place where life wears ever an honest smellOf hay and honey, sun and elder-bloom,--Like some sweet, simple girl,--within her hair;Where, with our love for comrade, we may dwellFar from the city's strife, whose cares consume.--Oh, take my hand and let me lead you there.
Words in this poem
- dreamy a.
- Abounding in dreams or given to dreaming; appropriate to, or like, dreams; visionary.
- drowse v. i.
- To sleep imperfectly or unsoundly; to slumber; to be heavy with sleepiness; to doze. [AS. dr, dr, to sink, become slow or inactive; cf. OD. droosen to be sleepy, fall asleep, LG. dr, druusken, to slumber, fall down with a noise; prob, akin to AS.]
- twinkle v. i.
- To open and shut the eye rapidly; to blink; to wink. [OE. twinklen, AS. twinclian; akin to OE. twinken to blink, wink, G. zwinken, zwinkern, and perhaps to E. twitch.]
- stillness n.
- The quality or state of being still; quietness; silence; calmness; inactivity.
- bobwhite n.
- The common qua(Colinus, or Ortyx, Virginianus); -- so called from its note.
- dwell v. i.
- To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
After Long Grief 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, After Long Grief, in Poems (1911), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7796, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/cawein-poems/after-long-grief.html, id L10969.
Form and metre
After Long Grief is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 36% 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 AB-AABB-CDECDE boughsA · sleepsB · deeps · drowseA · cowsA · keepsB · reapsB · house · smellC · bloomD · hairE · dwellC · consumeD · thereE
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 is a place hung o'er of summer boughs | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And dreamy skies wherein the gray hawk sleeps; | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Where water flows, within whose lazy deeps, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Like silvery prisms where the sunbeams drowse, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/·· |
| The minnows twinkle; where the bells of cows | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Tinkle the stillness; and the bobwhite keeps | 10 | /˘·/˘··/˘· |
| Calling from meadows where the reaper reaps, | 10 | /˘·/···/˘· |
| And children's laughter haunts an oldtime house: | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| A place where life wears ever an honest smell | 10 | ·····/·/˘· |
| Of hay and honey, sun and elder-bloom,-- | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Like some sweet, simple girl,--within her hair; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Where, with our love for comrade, we may dwell | 10 | ··/··/···· |
| Far from the city's strife, whose cares consume.-- | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Oh, take my hand and let me lead you there. | 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.