For a Guest Room
All words are said,And may it fallThat, crowning these,You here shall findA friendly bed,A sheltering wall,Your body’s ease,A quiet mind.
May you forgetIn happy sleepThe world that stillYou hold as friend,And may it yetBe ours to keepYour friendly willTo the world’s end.
For he is blestWho, fixed to shunAll evil, whenThe worst is known,Counts, east and west,When life is done,His debts to menIn love alone.
Words in this poem
- 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
For a Guest Room 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, For a Guest Room, in Poems, 1908-1919 (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51575, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drinkwater-poems/for-a-guest-room.html, id L23126.
Form and metre
For a Guest Room is 24 lines in 3 stanzas of 8 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABCDABCD. The metre is iambic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
See other poems in iambic dimeter.
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 ABCDABCD saidA · fallB · theseC · findD · bedA · wallB · easeC · mindD
- 2 ABCDABCD forgetA · sleepB · stillC · friendD · yetA · keepB · willC · endD
- 3 ABCDABCD blestA · shunB · whenC · knownD · westA · doneB · menC · aloneD
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 dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| All words are said, | 4 | ···· |
| And may it fall | 4 | ···· |
| That, crowning these, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| You here shall find | 4 | ···· |
| A friendly bed, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| A sheltering wall, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Your body’s ease, | 4 | ·/˘· |
| A quiet mind. | 4 | ·/˘· |
| May you forget | 4 | ··˘/ |
| In happy sleep | 4 | ·/˘· |
| The world that still | 4 | ···· |
| You hold as friend, | 4 | ···· |
| And may it yet | 4 | ···· |
| Be ours to keep | 4 | ·/·· |
| Your friendly will | 4 | ·/˘· |
| To the world’s end. | 4 | ···· |
| For he is blest | 4 | ···· |
| Who, fixed to shun | 4 | ···· |
| All evil, when | 4 | ·/˘· |
| The worst is known, | 4 | ···· |
| Counts, east and west, | 4 | ···· |
| When life is done, | 4 | ···· |
| His debts to men | 4 | ···· |
| In love alone. | 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.