The Common Street
The common street climbed up against the sky,Gray meeting gray; and wearily to and froI saw the patient, common people go,Each with his sordid burden trudging by.And the rain dropped; there was not any sighOr stir of a live wind; dull, dull and slowAll motion; as a tale told long agoThe faded world; and creeping night drew nigh.
Then burst the sunset, flooding far and fleet,Leavening the whole of life with magic leaven.Suddenly down the long wet glistening hillPure splendour poured--and lo! the common street,A golden highway into golden heaven,With the dark shapes of men ascending still.
Words in this poem
- wearily adv.
- In a weary manner.
- sordid a.
- Filthy; foul; dirty. [L. sordidus, fr. sordere to be filthy or dirty; probably akin to E. swart: cf. F. sordide. See Swart, a.]
- flooding n.
- The filling or covering with water or other fluid; overflow; inundation; the filling anything to excess.
- leavening n.
- The act of making light, or causing to ferment, by means of leaven.
- splendour n.
- Great brightness; brilliant luster; brilliancy; as, the splendor ot the sun. B. Jonson. [L. fr. splendere to shine: cf. F. splendeur.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Common Street is in the public domain. This text is taken from A chant of love for England, and other poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #71425; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Helen Gray Cone, The Common Street, in A Chant of Love for England, and Other Poems (1915), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #71425, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/cone-chant-for-england/the-common-street.html, id L22094.
Form and metre
The Common Street is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
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 ABBAABBA skyA · froB · goB · byA · sighA · slowB · agoB · nighA
- 2 ABCABC fleetA · leavenB · hillC · streetA · heavenB · stillC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The common street climbed up against the sky, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Gray meeting gray; and wearily to and fro | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| I saw the patient, common people go, | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| Each with his sordid burden trudging by. | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| And the rain dropped; there was not any sigh | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Or stir of a live wind; dull, dull and slow | 10 | ·········· |
| All motion; as a tale told long ago | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| The faded world; and creeping night drew nigh. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Then burst the sunset, flooding far and fleet, | 10 | ···/·/˘··· |
| Leavening the whole of life with magic leaven. | 11 | /˘·····/˘/˘ |
| Suddenly down the long wet glistening hill | 10 | /˘····/˘˘· |
| Pure splendour poured--and lo! the common street, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| A golden highway into golden heaven, | 11 | ·/˘/···/˘/˘ |
| With the dark shapes of men ascending still. | 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.