Epilogue for a Masque
A little time they lived again, and lo!Back to the quiet night the shadows go,And the great folds of silence once againAre over fools and kings and fighting-men.
A little while they went with stumbling feet,With spears of hate, and love all flowery sweet,With wondering hearts and bright adventurous wills,And now their dust is on a thousand hills.
We dream of them, as men unborn shall dreamOf us, who strive a little with the streamBefore we too go out beyond the day,And are as much a memory as they.
And Death, so coming, shall not seem a thingOf any fear, nor terrible his wing.We too shall be a tale on earth, and timeShall shape our pilgrimage into a rhyme.
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- unborn a.
- Not born; no yet brought into life; being still to appear; future.
- 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,]
- pilgrimage n.
- The journey of a pilgrim; a long journey; especially, a journey to a shrine or other sacred place. Fig., the journey of human life. [OE. pilgrimage, pelgrinage; cf. F. pèlerinage.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Epilogue for a Masque 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, Epilogue for a Masque, in Poems, 1908-1919 (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51575, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drinkwater-poems/epilogue-for-a-masque.html, id L23122.
Form and metre
Epilogue for a Masque is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABB. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 AABB loA · goA · againB · menB
- 2 AABB feetA · sweetA · willsB · hillsB
- 3 AABB dreamA · streamA · dayB · theyB
- 4 AABB thingA · wingA · timeB · rhymeB
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| A little time they lived again, and lo! | 10 | ·/˘···˘/·· |
| Back to the quiet night the shadows go, | 10 | ···/˘··/·· |
| And the great folds of silence once again | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Are over fools and kings and fighting-men. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| A little while they went with stumbling feet, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| With spears of hate, and love all flowery sweet, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| With wondering hearts and bright adventurous wills, | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| And now their dust is on a thousand hills. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| We dream of them, as men unborn shall dream | 10 | ······//·· |
| Of us, who strive a little with the stream | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Before we too go out beyond the day, | 10 | ·········· |
| And are as much a memory as they. | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| And Death, so coming, shall not seem a thing | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Of any fear, nor terrible his wing. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘˘·· |
| We too shall be a tale on earth, and time | 10 | ·········· |
| Shall shape our pilgrimage into a rhyme. | 10 | ··//˘˘···· |
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.