Holiness
If all the carts were painted gay,And all the streets swept clean,And all the children came to playBy hollyhocks, with greenGrasses to grow between,
If all the houses looked as thoughSome heart were in their stones,If all the people that we knowWere dressed in scarlet gowns,With feathers in their crowns,
I think this gaiety would makeA spiritual land.I think that holiness would takeThis laughter by the hand,Till both should understand.
About this text
Holiness 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, Holiness, in Poems, 1908-1919 (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51575, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drinkwater-poems/holiness.html, id L23021.
Form and metre
Holiness is 15 lines in 3 stanzas of 5 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABB, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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 ABABB gayA · cleanB · playA · greenB · betweenB
- 2 A-ABB thoughA · stones · knowA · gownsB · crownsB
- 3 ABABB makeA · landB · takeA · handB · understandB
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 trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| If all the carts were painted gay, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And all the streets swept clean, | 6 | ······ |
| And all the children came to play | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| By hollyhocks, with green | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Grasses to grow between, | 6 | /˘···· |
| If all the houses looked as though | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Some heart were in their stones, | 6 | ······ |
| If all the people that we know | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Were dressed in scarlet gowns, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| With feathers in their crowns, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| I think this gaiety would make | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| A spiritual land. | 6 | ·/˘˘˘· |
| I think that holiness would take | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| This laughter by the hand, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Till both should understand. | 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.