At an Earthworks
Ringed high with turf the arena lies,The neighbouring world unseen, unheard,Here are but unhorizoned skies,And on the skies a passing bird,
The conies and a wandering sheep,The castings of the chambered mole,--These, and the haunted years that keepLost agonies of blood and soul.
They say that in the midnight moonThe ghostly legions gather yet,And hear a ghostly timbrel-tune,And see a ghostly combat met.
These are but yeoman’s tales. And hereNo marvel on the midnight falls,But starlight marvellously clear,Being girdled in these shadowy walls.
Yet now strange glooms of ancestryCreep on me through this morning light,Some spectral self is seeking me ...I will not parley with the night.
Words in this poem
- neighbouring a.
- Living or being near; adjacent; as, the neighboring nations or countries.
- unseen a.
- Not seen or discovered.
- unheard a.
- Not heard; not perceived by the ear; as, words unheard by those present.
- haunted a.
- Inhabited by, or subject to the visits of, apparitions; frequented by a ghost.
- ghostly a.
- Relating to the soul; not carnal or secular; spiritual; as, a ghostly confessor. [OE. gastlich, gostlich, AS. gastlic. See Ghost.]
- starlight n.
- The light given by the stars.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
At an Earthworks is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, 1908-1919, Project Gutenberg ebook #51575; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Drinkwater, At an Earthworks, in Poems, 1908-1919 (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51575, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drinkwater-poems/at-an-earthworks.html, id L23108.
Form and metre
At an Earthworks is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 4 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
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 ABAB liesA · unheardB · skiesA · birdB
- 2 ABAB sheepA · moleB · keepA · soulB
- 3 ABAB moonA · yetB · tuneA · metB
- 4 ABAB hereA · fallsB · clearA · wallsB
- 5 -A-A ancestry · lightA · me · nightA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Ringed high with turf the arena lies, | 9 | ·····˘/˘· |
| The neighbouring world unseen, unheard, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘/ |
| Here are but unhorizoned skies, | 8 | ········ |
| And on the skies a passing bird, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The conies and a wandering sheep, | 8 | ····/˘˘· |
| The castings of the chambered mole,-- | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| These, and the haunted years that keep | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Lost agonies of blood and soul. | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| They say that in the midnight moon | 8 | ·····/·· |
| The ghostly legions gather yet, | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| And hear a ghostly timbrel-tune, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| And see a ghostly combat met. | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| These are but yeoman’s tales. And here | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| No marvel on the midnight falls, | 8 | ·/˘··/·· |
| But starlight marvellously clear, | 8 | ·/······ |
| Being girdled in these shadowy walls. | 8 | //˘··/˘· |
| Yet now strange glooms of ancestry | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| Creep on me through this morning light, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Some spectral self is seeking me ... | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| I will not parley with the night. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
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.