Home
Rest, rest--there is no rest,Until the quiet graveComes with its narrow archThe heart to saveFrom life's long cankering rust,From torpor, cold and still--The loveless, saddened dust,The jaded will.
And yet, be far the hourWhose haven calls me home;Long be the arduous dayTill evening come;What sureness now remainsBut that through livelong strifeOnly the loser gainsAn end to life?
Then in the soundless deepOf even the shallowest graveChildhood and love he'll keep,And his soul save;All vext desire, all vainCries of a conflict doneFallen to rest again;Death's refuge won.
Words in this poem
- loveless a.
- Void of love; void of tenderness or kindness. Milton. Shelton.
- arduous a.
- Steep and lofty, in a literal sense; hard to climb. [L. arduus steep, high; akin to Ir. ard high, height.]
- sureness n.
- The state of being sure; certainty.
- livelong a.
- Whole; entire; long in passing; -- used of time, as day or night, in adverbial phrases, and usually with a sense of tediousness. [For lifelong. Cf. Lifelong.]
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
- loser n.
- One who loses. South.
- soundless a.
- Not capable of being sounded or fathomed; unfathomable.
- childhood n.
- The state of being a child; the time in which persons are children; the condition or time from infancy to puberty. [AS. cildhad; cild child + -had. See Child, and hood.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Home 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, Home, in The Listeners and Other Poems (1912), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22569, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/de-la-mare-listeners/home.html, id L17110.
Form and metre
Home is 24 lines in 3 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.5 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 iambic trimeter.
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-ABCBC rest · graveA · arch · saveA · rustB · stillC · dustB · willC
- 2 -A-ABCBC hour · homeA · day · comeA · remainsB · strifeC · gainsB · lifeC
- 3 ABABCDCD deepA · graveB · keepA · saveB · vainC · doneD · againC · wonD
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Rest, rest--there is no rest, | 6 | ······ |
| Until the quiet grave | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Comes with its narrow arch | 6 | ···/˘· |
| The heart to save | 4 | ···· |
| From life's long cankering rust, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| From torpor, cold and still-- | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The loveless, saddened dust, | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| The jaded will. | 4 | ·/˘· |
| And yet, be far the hour | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Whose haven calls me home; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Long be the arduous day | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Till evening come; | 4 | ·/˘· |
| What sureness now remains | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| But that through livelong strife | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Only the loser gains | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| An end to life? | 4 | ···· |
| Then in the soundless deep | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Of even the shallowest grave | 6 | ·/·/˘· |
| Childhood and love he'll keep, | 6 | /····· |
| And his soul save; | 4 | ···· |
| All vext desire, all vain | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| Cries of a conflict done | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Fallen to rest again; | 6 | /˘··˘/ |
| Death's refuge won. | 4 | ·/˘· |
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.