An Epitaph
Here lies a most beautiful lady,Light of step and heart was she;I think she was the most beautiful ladyThat ever was in the West Country.But beauty vanishes; beauty passes;However rare--rare it be;And when I crumble, who will rememberThis lady of the West Country?
About this text
An Epitaph is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Listeners and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #22569; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Walter de la Mare, An Epitaph, in The Listeners and Other Poems (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22569, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/de-la-mare-listeners/an-epitaph.html, id L17112.
Form and metre
An Epitaph is 8 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 76%). 85% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.4 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% 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 ABAC-B-C ladyA · sheB · ladyA · countryC · passes · beB · remember · countryC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Here lies a most beautiful lady, | 8 | ····/˘/˘ |
| Light of step and heart was she; | 7 | ······· |
| I think she was the most beautiful lady | 10 | ······/˘/˘ |
| That ever was in the West Country. | 8 | ·/····/˘ |
| But beauty vanishes; beauty passes; | 9 | ·/˘/˘/˘/˘ |
| However rare--rare it be; | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| And when I crumble, who will remember | 10 | ···/˘··˘/˘ |
| This lady of the West Country? | 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.