Exile
Had the gods loved me I had lainWhere darnel is, and thorn,And the wild night-bird's nightlong strainTrembles in boughs forlorn.
Nay, but they loved me not; and IMust needs a stranger be,Whose every exiled day gone byAches with their memory.
Words in this poem
- nightlong a.
- Lasting all night.
- forlorn a.
- Deserted abandoned; lost. [OE., p.p. of forlesen to lose utterly, AS. forleósan (p.p. forloren); pref. for- + leósan (in comp.) to lose; cf. D. verliezen to lose, G. verlieren, Sw. förlor]
- needs adv.
- Of necessity; necessarily; indispensably; -- often with must, and equivalent to of need. [Orig. gen. of need, used as an adverb. Cf. - wards.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Exile 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, Exile, in The Listeners and Other Poems (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22569, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/de-la-mare-listeners/exile.html, id L17087.
Form and metre
Exile is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.0 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 50% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in common measure.
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 lainA · thornB · strainA · forlornB
- 2 AAA- iA · beA · byA · memory
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Had the gods loved me I had lain | 8 | ········ |
| Where darnel is, and thorn, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And the wild night-bird's nightlong strain | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Trembles in boughs forlorn. | 6 | /˘··˘/ |
| Nay, but they loved me not; and I | 8 | ········ |
| Must needs a stranger be, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Whose every exiled day gone by | 8 | ·/˘/···· |
| Aches with their memory. | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
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.