Habitation
High up in the sky there, now, you know,In this May twilight, our cottage is asleep,Tenantless, and no creature there to goNear it but Mrs. Fry’s fat cows, and sheepDove-coloured, as is Cotswold. No one hearsUnder that cherry-tree the night-jars yet,The windows are uncurtained; on the stairsSilence is but by tip-toe silence met.All doors are fast there. It is a dwelling put byFrom use for a little, or long, up there in the sky.
Empty; a walled-in silence, in this twilight of May--A home for lovers, and friendly withdrawing, and sleep,With none to love there, nor laugh, nor climb from the dayTo the candles and linen.... Yet in the silence creep,This minute, I know, little ghosts, little virtuous lives,Breathing upon that still, insensible place,Touching the latches, sorting the napkins and knives,And such for the comfort of being, and bowls for the grace,That roses will brim; they are creeping from that room to this,One room, and two, till the four are visited ... they,Little ghosts, little lives, are our thoughts in this twilight of May,Signs that even the curious man would miss,Of travelling lovers to Cotswold, signs of an hour,Very soon, when up from the valley in June will rideLovers by Lynch to Oakridge up in the wideBow of the hill, to a garden of lavender flower....
The doors are locked; no foot falls; the hearths are dumb--But we are there--we are waiting ourselves who come.
Words in this poem
- tenantless a.
- Having no tenants; unoccupied; as, a tenantless mansion.
- coloured a.
- Having color; tinged; dyed; painted; stained.
- virtuous a.
- Possessing or exhibiting virtue. Specifically: -- (a) Exhibiting manly courage and strength; valorous; valiant; brave. [OE. vertuous, OF. vertuos, vertuous, F. vertueux, fr. L. Virtuous. See Virtue, and cf. Virtuoso.]
- curious a.
- Difficult to please or satisfy; solicitous to be correct; careful; scrupulous; nice; exact. [OF. curios, curius, F. curieux, L. curiosus careful, inquisitive, fr. cura care. See Cure.]
- lynch v. t.
- To inflict punishment upon, especially death, without the forms of law, as when a mob captures and hangs a suspected person. See Lynch law. [See Note under Lynch law.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Habitation 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, Habitation, in Poems, 1908-1919 (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51575, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drinkwater-poems/habitation.html, id L23110.
Form and metre
Habitation is 28 lines in 3 stanzas. 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 ABAB-C-CDD knowA · asleepB · goA · sheepB · hears · yetC · stairs · metC · byD · skyD
- 2 ABABCDCDEAAEFGGF mayA · sleepB · dayA · creepB · livesC · placeD · knivesC · graceD · thisE · theyA · mayA · missE · hourF · rideG · wideG · flowerF
- 3 AA dumbA · comeA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| High up in the sky there, now, you know, | 9 | ········· |
| In this May twilight, our cottage is asleep, | 11 | ···/·//˘·˘/ |
| Tenantless, and no creature there to go | 10 | /˘˘··/˘··· |
| Near it but Mrs. Fry’s fat cows, and sheep | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Dove-coloured, as is Cotswold. No one hears | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Under that cherry-tree the night-jars yet, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| The windows are uncurtained; on the stairs | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Silence is but by tip-toe silence met. | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| All doors are fast there. It is a dwelling put by | 12 | ········/˘·· |
| From use for a little, or long, up there in the sky. | 13 | ····/˘······· |
| Empty; a walled-in silence, in this twilight of May-- | 13 | /˘···/˘··/··· |
| A home for lovers, and friendly withdrawing, and sleep, | 13 | ···/˘·/˘˘/˘·· |
| With none to love there, nor laugh, nor climb from the day | 12 | ············ |
| To the candles and linen.... Yet in the silence creep, | 13 | ··/˘·/˘···/˘· |
| This minute, I know, little ghosts, little virtuous lives, | 13 | ·˘/··/˘·/˘/˘· |
| Breathing upon that still, insensible place, | 10 | /˘····˘/˘· |
| Touching the latches, sorting the napkins and knives, | 12 | /˘·/˘/˘·/˘·· |
| And such for the comfort of being, and bowls for the grace, | 13 | ····/˘·/····· |
| That roses will brim; they are creeping from that room to this, | 14 | ·/˘····/˘····· |
| One room, and two, till the four are visited ... they, | 11 | ········/˘· |
| Little ghosts, little lives, are our thoughts in this twilight of May, | 15 | /˘·/˘··/···/··· |
| Signs that even the curious man would miss, | 9 | ··/·/˘··· |
| Of travelling lovers to Cotswold, signs of an hour, | 12 | ·/˘/˘·/˘···/ |
| Very soon, when up from the valley in June will ride | 13 | /˘·····/˘···· |
| Lovers by Lynch to Oakridge up in the wide | 11 | /˘···/····· |
| Bow of the hill, to a garden of lavender flower.... | 12 | ······/˘·/˘/ |
| The doors are locked; no foot falls; the hearths are dumb-- | 11 | ··········· |
| But we are there--we are waiting ourselves who come. | 12 | ······/˘˘/·· |
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.