Old Homes
Old homes among the hills! I love their gardens;Their old rock fences, that our day inherits;Their doors, round which the great trees stand like wardens;Their paths, down which the shadows march like spirits;Broad doors and paths that reach bird-haunted gardens.
I see them gray among their ancient acres,Severe of front, their gables lichen-sprinkled,--Like gentle-hearted, solitary Quakers,Grave and religious, with kind faces wrinkled,--Serene among their memory-hallowed acres.
Their gardens, banked with roses and with lilies--Those sweet aristocrats of all the flowers--Where Springtime mints her gold in daffodillies,And Autumn coins her marigolds in showers,And all the hours are toilless as the lilies.
I love their orchards where the gay woodpeckerFlits, flashing o'er you, like a wingéd jewel;Their woods, whose floors of moss the squirrels checkerWith half-hulled nuts; and where, in cool renewal,The wild brooks laugh, and raps the red woodpecker.
Old homes! old hearts! Upon my soul foreverTheir peace and gladness lie like tears and laughter;Like love they touch me, through the years that sever,With simple faith; like friendship, draw me afterThe dreamy patience that is theirs forever.
Words in this poem
- haunted a.
- Inhabited by, or subject to the visits of, apparitions; frequented by a ghost.
- springtime n.
- The season of spring; springtide.
- toilless a.
- Free from toil.
- checker n.
- One who checks. [From Check, v. t.]
- dreamy a.
- Abounding in dreams or given to dreaming; appropriate to, or like, dreams; visionary.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Old Homes 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, Old Homes, in Poems (1911), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7796, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/cawein-poems/old-homes.html, id L10880.
Form and metre
Old Homes is 25 lines in 5 stanzas of 5 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABA, complete in 4 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is iambic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.8 syllables. 20 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 16% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic hexameter.
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---A gardensA · inherits · wardens · spirits · gardensA
- 2 ABABA acresA · sprinkledB · quakersA · wrinkledB · acresA
- 3 ABABA liliesA · flowersB · daffodilliesA · showersB · liliesA
- 4 ABABA woodpeckerA · jewelB · checkerA · renewalB · woodpeckerA
- 5 ABABA foreverA · laughterB · severA · afterB · foreverA
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 hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Old homes among the hills! I love their gardens; | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| Their old rock fences, that our day inherits; | 12 | ···/˘·/˘·˘/˘ |
| Their doors, round which the great trees stand like wardens; | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| Their paths, down which the shadows march like spirits; | 11 | ·····/···/˘ |
| Broad doors and paths that reach bird-haunted gardens. | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| I see them gray among their ancient acres, | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| Severe of front, their gables lichen-sprinkled,-- | 11 | ˘/···/˘/˘/˘ |
| Like gentle-hearted, solitary Quakers, | 11 | ·/˘/˘/˘·˘/˘ |
| Grave and religious, with kind faces wrinkled,-- | 11 | ··˘/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Serene among their memory-hallowed acres. | 12 | ˘/···/˘˘/˘/˘ |
| Their gardens, banked with roses and with lilies-- | 11 | ·/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| Those sweet aristocrats of all the flowers-- | 11 | ··˘/˘····/˘ |
| Where Springtime mints her gold in daffodillies, | 10 | ·/········ |
| And Autumn coins her marigolds in showers, | 11 | ·/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| And all the hours are toilless as the lilies. | 12 | ···/˘·/˘··/˘ |
| I love their orchards where the gay woodpecker | 11 | ···/˘···/·˘ |
| Flits, flashing o'er you, like a wingéd jewel; | 10 | ·/˘·····/˘ |
| Their woods, whose floors of moss the squirrels checker | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| With half-hulled nuts; and where, in cool renewal, | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| The wild brooks laugh, and raps the red woodpecker. | 11 | ········/·˘ |
| Old homes! old hearts! Upon my soul forever | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| Their peace and gladness lie like tears and laughter; | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
| Like love they touch me, through the years that sever, | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| With simple faith; like friendship, draw me after | 11 | ·/˘··/˘···· |
| The dreamy patience that is theirs forever. | 11 | ·/˘/˘···˘/˘ |
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.