Days and Days
The days that clothed white limbs with heat,And rocked the red rose on their breast,Have passed with amber-sandaled feetInto the ruby-gated west.
These were the days that filled the heartWith overflowing riches ofLife, in whose soul no dream shall startBut hath its origin in love.
Now come the days gray-huddled inThe haze; whose foggy footsteps drip;Who pin beneath a gypsy chinThe frosty marigold and hip.
The days, whose forms fall shadowyAthwart the heart: whose misty breathShapes saddest sweets of memoryOut of the bitterness of death.
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- drip v. i.
- To fall in drops; as, water drips from the eaves. [Akin to LG. drippen, Dan. dryppe, from a noun. See Drop.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Days and Days 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, Days and Days, in Poems (1911), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7796, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/cawein-poems/days-and-days.html, id L10916.
Form and metre
Days and Days is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.0 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 56% 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 ABAB heatA · breastB · feetA · westB
- 2 ABAB heartA · ofB · startA · loveB
- 3 ABAB inA · dripB · chinA · hipB
- 4 -A-A shadowy · breathA · memory · deathA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The days that clothed white limbs with heat, | 8 | ········ |
| And rocked the red rose on their breast, | 8 | ········ |
| Have passed with amber-sandaled feet | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Into the ruby-gated west. | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| These were the days that filled the heart | 8 | ········ |
| With overflowing riches of | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| Life, in whose soul no dream shall start | 8 | ········ |
| But hath its origin in love. | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| Now come the days gray-huddled in | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The haze; whose foggy footsteps drip; | 8 | ···/˘/·· |
| Who pin beneath a gypsy chin | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The frosty marigold and hip. | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| The days, whose forms fall shadowy | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| Athwart the heart: whose misty breath | 8 | ˘/···/˘· |
| Shapes saddest sweets of memory | 8 | ·/˘··/˘˘ |
| Out of the bitterness of death. | 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.