At Grafton
God laughed when he made GraftonThat’s under Bredon Hill,A jewel in a jewelled plain.The seasons work their willOn golden thatch and crumbling stone,And every soft-lipped breezeMakes music for the Grafton menIn comfortable trees.
God’s beauty over GraftonStole into roof and wall,And hallowed every pavèd pathAnd every lowly stall,And to a woven wonderConspired with one accordThe labour of the servant,The labour of the Lord.
And momently to GraftonComes in from vale and woldThe sound of sheep unshepherded,The sound of sheep in fold,And, blown along the basesOf lands that set their wideFrank brows to God, comes chantingThe breath of Bristol tide.
Words in this poem
- stole n.
- A long, loose garment reaching to the feet. [AS. stole, L. stola, Gr. stall. See Stall.]
- vale n.
- A tract of low ground, or of land between hills; a valley. [OE. val, F. val, L. vallis; perhaps akin to Gr. Avalanche, Vail to lower, Valley.]
- wold n.
- A wood; a forest. [OE. wold, wald, AS. weald, wald, a wood, forest; akin to OFries. & OS. wald, D. woud, G. wald, Icel. völlr, a field, and probably to Gr. va a garden, inclosure.]
- bristol n.
- A seaport city in the west of England. Bristol board, a kind of fine pasteboard, made with a smooth but usually unglazed surface.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
At Grafton 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 Grafton, in Poems, 1908-1919 (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51575, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drinkwater-poems/at-grafton.html, id L23089.
Form and metre
At Grafton is 24 lines in 3 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
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 ABABAC-C graftonA · hillB · plainA · willB · stoneA · breezeC · men · treesC
- 2 -A-A-B-B grafton · wallA · path · stallA · wonder · accordB · servant · lordB
- 3 -A-A-B-B grafton · woldA · unshepherded · foldA · bases · wideB · chanting · tideB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| God laughed when he made Grafton | 8 | ··˘···/˘ |
| That’s under Bredon Hill, | 6 | ······ |
| A jewel in a jewelled plain. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The seasons work their will | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| On golden thatch and crumbling stone, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And every soft-lipped breeze | 8 | ·/˘˘··˘· |
| Makes music for the Grafton men | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| In comfortable trees. | 6 | ·/˘˘˘· |
| God’s beauty over Grafton | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| Stole into roof and wall, | 6 | ······ |
| And hallowed every pavèd path | 8 | ·/˘/˘˘·· |
| And every lowly stall, | 7 | ·/˘˘/˘· |
| And to a woven wonder | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Conspired with one accord | 8 | ˘/˘˘··˘/ |
| The labour of the servant, | 7 | ·/···/˘ |
| The labour of the Lord. | 6 | ·/···· |
| And momently to Grafton | 7 | ·/˘˘·/˘ |
| Comes in from vale and wold | 6 | ······ |
| The sound of sheep unshepherded, | 8 | ········ |
| The sound of sheep in fold, | 6 | ······ |
| And, blown along the bases | 7 | ··˘/·/˘ |
| Of lands that set their wide | 6 | ······ |
| Frank brows to God, comes chanting | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| The breath of Bristol tide. | 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.