My Grandmother’s Love Letters
There are no stars to-nightBut those of memory.Yet how much room for memory there isIn the loose girdle of soft rain.
There is even room enoughFor the letters of my mother’s mother,Elizabeth,That have been pressed so longInto a corner of the roofThat they are brown and soft,And liable to melt as snow.
Over the greatness of such spaceSteps must be gentle.It is all hung by an invisible white hair.It trembles as birch limbs webbing the air.
“Are your fingers long enough to playOld keys that are but echoes:Is the silence strong enoughTo carry back the music to its sourceAnd back to you againAs though to her?”
Yet I would lead my grandmother by the handThrough much of what she would not understand;And so I stumble. And the rain continues on the roofWith such a sound of gently pitying laughter.
Words in this poem
- webbing n.
- A woven band of cotton or flax, used for reins, girths, bed bottoms, etc.
- pitying a.
- Expressing pity; as, a pitying eye, glance, or word.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
My Grandmother’s Love Letters is in the public domain. This text is taken from White buildings, Project Gutenberg ebook #77837; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Hart Crane, My Grandmother’s Love Letters, in White Buildings (1926), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #77837, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/crane-hart-white-buildings/my-grandmother-s-love-letters.html, id L02593.
Form and metre
My Grandmother’s Love Letters is 25 lines in 5 stanzas. 91% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.1 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 48% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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.
- 3 --AA space · gentle · hairA · airA
- 5 AA-- handA · understandA · roof · laughter
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| There are no stars to-night | 6 | ······ |
| But those of memory. | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| Yet how much room for memory there is | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| In the loose girdle of soft rain. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| There is even room enough | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| For the letters of my mother’s mother, | 10 | ··/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Elizabeth, | 4 | ˘/˘˘ |
| That have been pressed so long | 6 | ······ |
| Into a corner of the roof | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| That they are brown and soft, | 6 | ······ |
| And liable to melt as snow. | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| Over the greatness of such space | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Steps must be gentle. | 5 | ···/˘ |
| It is all hung by an invisible white hair. | 11 | ······˘/˘·· |
| It trembles as birch limbs webbing the air. | 10 | ·/˘···/˘·· |
| “Are your fingers long enough to play | 9 | ··/˘·˘/·· |
| Old keys that are but echoes: | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Is the silence strong enough | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| To carry back the music to its source | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| And back to you again | 6 | ····˘/ |
| As though to her?” | 4 | ···· |
| Yet I would lead my grandmother by the hand | 11 | ·····/·˘··· |
| Through much of what she would not understand; | 10 | ········˘/ |
| And so I stumble. And the rain continues on the roof | 14 | ···/˘···˘/˘··· |
| With such a sound of gently pitying laughter. | 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.