At an Inn
We are talkative proud, and assured, and self-sufficient,The quick of the earth this day;This inn is ours, and its courtyard, and English history,And the Post Office up the way.
The stars in their changes, and heavenly speculation,The habits of birds and flowers,And character bred of poverty and riches,All these are ours.
The world is ours, and these its themes and its substance,And of these we are free men and wise;Among them all we move in possession and judgment,For a day, till it dies.
But in eighteen-hundred-and-fifty, who were the tenants,Sure and deliberate as we?They knew us not in the time of their ascension,Their self-sufficiency.
And in nineteen-hundred-and-fifty this inn shall flourish,And history still be told,And the heat of blood shall thrive, and speculation,When we are cold.
Words in this poem
- speculation n.
- The act of speculating. Specifically: -- (a) Examination by the eye; view. [L. speculatio a spying out, observation: cf. F. spéculation.]
- ascension n.
- The act of ascending; a rising; ascent. [F. ascension, L. ascensio, fr. ascendere. See Ascend.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
At an Inn 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 Inn, in Poems, 1908-1919 (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51575, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drinkwater-poems/at-an-inn.html, id L23115.
Form and metre
At an Inn is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter.
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 -A-A sufficient · dayA · history · wayA
- 2 -A-A speculation · flowersA · riches · oursA
- 3 -A-A substance · wiseA · judgment · diesA
- 5 -A-A flourish · toldA · speculation · coldA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| We are talkative proud, and assured, and self-sufficient, | 13 | ··/˘··˘/··˘/˘ |
| The quick of the earth this day; | 7 | ······· |
| This inn is ours, and its courtyard, and English history, | 13 | ···/··/··/˘/˘ |
| And the Post Office up the way. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The stars in their changes, and heavenly speculation, | 13 | ····/˘·/˘·˘/˘ |
| The habits of birds and flowers, | 8 | ·/˘···/˘ |
| And character bred of poverty and riches, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·/˘ |
| All these are ours. | 5 | ···/˘ |
| The world is ours, and these its themes and its substance, | 12 | ···/······/˘ |
| And of these we are free men and wise; | 9 | ········· |
| Among them all we move in possession and judgment, | 13 | ·······˘/˘·/˘ |
| For a day, till it dies. | 6 | ······ |
| But in eighteen-hundred-and-fifty, who were the tenants, | 14 | ··///˘·/˘···/˘ |
| Sure and deliberate as we? | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| They knew us not in the time of their ascension, | 12 | ·········˘/˘ |
| Their self-sufficiency. | 6 | ··˘/˘˘ |
| And in nineteen-hundred-and-fifty this inn shall flourish, | 14 | ··///˘·/˘···/˘ |
| And history still be told, | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| And the heat of blood shall thrive, and speculation, | 12 | ·········˘/˘ |
| When we are cold. | 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.