A Last Word
Let us go hence: the night is now at hand;The day is overworn, the birds all flown;And we have reaped the crops the gods have sownDespair and death; deep darkness o'er the land,Broods like an owl; we cannot understandLaughter or tears, for we have only knownSurpassing vanity: vain things aloneHave driven our perverse and aimless band.
Let us go hence, somewhither strange and cold,To Hollow Lands where just men and unjustFind end of labour, where's rest for the old,Freedom to all from love and fear and lust.Twine our torn hands! O pray the earth enfoldOur life-sick hearts and turn them into dust.
Words in this poem
- overworn p. p.
- Worn out or subdued by toil; worn out so as to be trite.
- flown a.
- Flushed, inflated.
- aimless a.
- Without aim or purpose; as, an aimless life.
- somewhither adv.
- To some indeterminate place; to some place or other.
- lust v. i.
- To list; to like. [AS. lystan. See Lust, n., and cf. List to choose.]
- enfold v. t.
- To infold. See Infold.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Last Word is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems and Prose of Ernest Dowson, With a Memoir by Arthur Symons, Project Gutenberg ebook #8497; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Ernest Dowson, A Last Word, in The Poems of Ernest Dowson (1896–1899), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8497, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dowson-poems/a-last-word.html, id L01692.
Form and metre
A Last Word is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 43% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 handA · flownB · sownB · landA · understandA · knownB · aloneB · bandA
- 2 ABABAB coldA · unjustB · oldA · lustB · enfoldA · dustB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Let us go hence: the night is now at hand; | 10 | ·········· |
| The day is overworn, the birds all flown; | 10 | ·········· |
| And we have reaped the crops the gods have sown | 10 | ·········· |
| Despair and death; deep darkness o'er the land, | 10 | ˘/···/˘··· |
| Broods like an owl; we cannot understand | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Laughter or tears, for we have only known | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| Surpassing vanity: vain things alone | 10 | ˘/˘/˘˘··˘/ |
| Have driven our perverse and aimless band. | 10 | ·//˘˘/·/˘· |
| Let us go hence, somewhither strange and cold, | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| To Hollow Lands where just men and unjust | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| Find end of labour, where's rest for the old, | 10 | ···/······ |
| Freedom to all from love and fear and lust. | 10 | /˘········ |
| Twine our torn hands! O pray the earth enfold | 10 | ·/······˘/ |
| Our life-sick hearts and turn them into dust. | 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.