Jadis
Erewhile, before the world was old,When violets grew and celandine,In Cupid's train we were enrolled:Erewhile!Your little hands were clasped in mine,Your head all ruddy and sun-goldLay on my breast which was your shrine,And all the tale of love was told:And fires fade out which were not cold,Erewhile.
Words in this poem
- erewhile adv.
- Some time ago; a little while before; heretofore.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Jadis 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, Jadis, in The Poems of Ernest Dowson (1896–1899), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #8497, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dowson-poems/jadis.html, id L01675.
Form and metre
Jadis is 10 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABACBABAAC. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.8 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 10% 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 ABACBABAAC oldA · celandineB · enrolledA · erewhileC · mineB · goldA · shrineB · toldA · coldA · erewhileC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Erewhile, before the world was old, | 10 | ·········· |
| When violets grew and celandine, | 9 | ·/˘˘··/˘· |
| In Cupid's train we were enrolled: | 9 | ·/˘···˘/˘ |
| Erewhile! | 4 | ···· |
| Your little hands were clasped in mine, | 9 | ·/˘···˘·· |
| Your head all ruddy and sun-gold | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Lay on my breast which was your shrine, | 8 | ········ |
| And all the tale of love was told: | 8 | ········ |
| And fires fade out which were not cold, | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| Erewhile. | 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.