Moonlit Apples
At the top of the house the apples are laid in rows,And the skylight lets the moonlight in, and thoseApples are deep-sea apples of green. There goesA cloud on the moon in the autumn night.
A mouse in the wainscot scratches, and scratches, and thenThere is no sound at the top of the house of menOr mice; and the cloud is blown, and the moon againDapples the apples with deep-sea light.
They are lying in rows there, under the gloomy beams;On the sagging floor; they gather the silver streamsOut of the moon, those moonlit apples of dreams,And quiet is the steep stair under.
In the corridors under there is nothing but sleep.And stiller than ever on orchard boughs they keepTryst with the moon, and deep is the silence, deepOn moon-washed apples of wonder.
Words in this poem
- skylight n.
- A window placed in the roof of a building, in the ceiling of a room, or in the deck of a ship, for the admission of light from above.
- wainscot n.
- Oaken timber or boarding. [OD. waeghe-schot, D. wagen-schot, a clapboard, fr. OD. waeg, weeg, a wall (akin to AS. wah; cf. Icel. veggr) + schot a covering of boards (akin to E. shot, shoo]
- sagging n.
- A bending or sinking between the ends of a thing, in consequence of its own, or an imposed, weight; an arching downward in the middle, as of a ship after straining. Cf. Hogging.
- moonlit a.
- Illumined by the moon.
- stiller n.
- One who stills, or quiets.
- tryst v. i.
- To mutually agree to meet at a certain place.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Moonlit Apples 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, Moonlit Apples, in Poems, 1908-1919 (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51575, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drinkwater-poems/moonlit-apples.html, id L23101.
Form and metre
Moonlit Apples is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 50% of the lines. The metre is iambic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 71%).
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in iambic hexameter.
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 AAAB rowsA · thoseA · goesA · nightB
- 2 CCCB thenC · menC · againC · lightB
- 3 DDDE beamsD · streamsD · dreamsD · underE
- 4 FFFE sleepF · keepF · deepF · wonderE
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 hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| At the top of the house the apples are laid in rows, | 13 | ·······/˘···· |
| And the skylight lets the moonlight in, and those | 11 | ··/···/···· |
| Apples are deep-sea apples of green. There goes | 11 | /˘···/˘···· |
| A cloud on the moon in the autumn night. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| A mouse in the wainscot scratches, and scratches, and then | 13 | ····/˘/˘·/˘·· |
| There is no sound at the top of the house of men | 12 | ············ |
| Or mice; and the cloud is blown, and the moon again | 12 | ··········˘/ |
| Dapples the apples with deep-sea light. | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| They are lying in rows there, under the gloomy beams; | 13 | ··/˘······/˘· |
| On the sagging floor; they gather the silver streams | 12 | ··/˘··/˘·/˘· |
| Out of the moon, those moonlit apples of dreams, | 11 | ·····/·/˘·· |
| And quiet is the steep stair under. | 8 | ·/······ |
| In the corridors under there is nothing but sleep. | 12 | ··/˘····/˘·· |
| And stiller than ever on orchard boughs they keep | 11 | ·/˘·/·/˘··· |
| Tryst with the moon, and deep is the silence, deep | 11 | ········/˘· |
| On moon-washed apples of wonder. | 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.