In a Breton Cemetery
They sleep well here,These fisher-folk who passed their anxious daysIn fierce Atlantic ways;And found not there,Beneath the long curled wave,So quiet a grave.
And they sleep wellThese peasant-folk, who told their lives away,From day to market-day,As one should tell,With patient industry,Some sad old rosary.
And now night falls,Me, tempest-tost, and driven from pillar to post,A poor worn ghost,This quiet pasture calls;And dear dead people with pale handsBeckon me to their lands.
Words in this poem
- rosary n.
- A bed of roses, or place where roses grow. [LL. rosarium a string of beads, L. rosarium a place planted with roses, rosa a rose: cf. F. rosaire. See Rose.]
- ghost n.
- The spirit; the soul of man. [OE. gast, gost, soul, spirit, AS. gast breath, spirit, soul; akin to OS. g spirit, soul, D. geest, G. geist, and prob. to E. gaze, ghastly.]
- beckon v. t.
- To make a significant sign to; hence, to summon, as by a motion of the hand.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
In a Breton Cemetery 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, In a Breton Cemetery, in The Poems of Ernest Dowson (1896–1899), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8497, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dowson-poems/in-a-breton-cemetery.html, id L01676.
Form and metre
In a Breton Cemetery is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABBACC, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.1 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 17% 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.
- 1 ABBACC hereA · daysB · waysB · thereA · waveC · graveC
- 2 ABBA-- wellA · awayB · dayB · tellA · industry · rosary
- 3 ABBACC fallsA · postB · ghostB · callsA · handsC · landsC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| They sleep well here, | 4 | ···· |
| These fisher-folk who passed their anxious days | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| In fierce Atlantic ways; | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| And found not there, | 4 | ···· |
| Beneath the long curled wave, | 6 | ······ |
| So quiet a grave. | 5 | ·/˘·· |
| And they sleep well | 4 | ···· |
| These peasant-folk, who told their lives away, | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| From day to market-day, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| As one should tell, | 4 | ···· |
| With patient industry, | 6 | ·/˘/˘˘ |
| Some sad old rosary. | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| And now night falls, | 4 | ···· |
| Me, tempest-tost, and driven from pillar to post, | 11 | ·/˘··/·/˘·· |
| A poor worn ghost, | 4 | ···· |
| This quiet pasture calls; | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| And dear dead people with pale hands | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Beckon me to their lands. | 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.