Liegewoman
You may not wear immortal leavesNor yet go laurelled in your days,But he believesWho loves you with most intimate praiseThat none on earth has ever gone,In whom a cleanlier spirit shone.
You may be unremembered whenOur chronicles are piled in dust:No matter than--None ever bore a lordlier lustTo know the savour sweet or sourDown to the dregs of every hour.
And this your epitaph shall be--“Within life’s house her eager wordsContinuallyLightened as wings of arrowy birds:She was life’s house-fellow, she knewThe passion of him, soul and thew.”
Words in this poem
- piled a.
- Having a pile or point; pointed. [From 2d Pile.]
- lust v. i.
- To list; to like. [AS. lystan. See Lust, n., and cf. List to choose.]
- savour v. t.
- To perceive by the smell or the taste; hence, to perceive; to note. B. Jonson.
- 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,]
- arrowy a.
- Consisting of arrows.
- thew n.
- Manner; custom; habit; form of behavior; qualities of mind; disposition; specifically, good qualities; virtues.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Liegewoman 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, Liegewoman, in Poems, 1908-1919 (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51575, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drinkwater-poems/liegewoman.html, id L23060.
Form and metre
Liegewoman is 18 lines in 3 stanzas of 6 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
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-- leavesA · daysB · believesA · praiseB · gone · shone
- 2 -A-ABB when · dustA · than · lustA · sourB · hourB
- 3 -A-ABB be · wordsA · continually · birdsA · knewB · thewB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| You may not wear immortal leaves | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Nor yet go laurelled in your days, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| But he believes | 4 | ··˘/ |
| Who loves you with most intimate praise | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| That none on earth has ever gone, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| In whom a cleanlier spirit shone. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| You may be unremembered when | 8 | ········ |
| Our chronicles are piled in dust: | 8 | //˘˘···· |
| No matter than-- | 4 | ·/˘· |
| None ever bore a lordlier lust | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| To know the savour sweet or sour | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| Down to the dregs of every hour. | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| And this your epitaph shall be-- | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| “Within life’s house her eager words | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Continually | 5 | ˘/˘˘˘ |
| Lightened as wings of arrowy birds: | 9 | /˘···/˘˘· |
| She was life’s house-fellow, she knew | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| The passion of him, soul and thew.” | 8 | ·/˘····· |
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.