Reckoning
I heard my love go laughingBeyond the bolted door,I saw my love go ridingAcross the windy moor,And I would give my love no wordBecause of evil tales I heard.
Let fancy men go laughing,Let light men ride away,Bruised corn is not for my mill,What’s paid I will not pay,--And so I thought because of thisGossip that poisoned clasp and kiss.
Four hundred men went riding,And he the best of all,A jolly man for labour,A sinewy man and tall;I watched him go beyond the hill,And shaped my anger with my will.
At night my love came ridingAcross the dusky moor,And other two rode with himWho knocked my bolted door,And called me out and bade me seeHow quiet a man a man could be.
And now the tales that stung meAnd gave my pride its rule,Are worth a beggar’s broken shoeOr the sermon of a fool,And all I know and all I canIs, false or true, he was my man.
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- rode n.
- Redness; complexion. [See Rud.]
- bade
- A form of the pat tense of Bid.
- sermon n.
- A discourse or address; a talk; a writing; as, the sermens of Chaucer. [OE. sermoun, sermun, F. sermon, fr. L. sermo, - onis, a speaking, discourse, probably fr. serer, sertum, to join, connect; hence, a connected speech. See Series]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Reckoning 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, Reckoning, in Poems, 1908-1919 (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51575, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drinkwater-poems/reckoning.html, id L23064.
Form and metre
Reckoning is 30 lines in 5 stanzas of 6 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
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 ----AA laughing · door · riding · moor · wordA · heardA
- 2 -A-ABB laughing · awayA · mill · payA · thisB · kissB
- 3 -A-ABB riding · allA · labour · tallA · hillB · willB
- 4 ----AA riding · moor · him · door · seeA · beA
- 5 -A-ABB me · ruleA · shoe · foolA · canB · manB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I heard my love go laughing | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Beyond the bolted door, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| I saw my love go riding | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Across the windy moor, | 6 | ˘/·/˘· |
| And I would give my love no word | 8 | ········ |
| Because of evil tales I heard. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Let fancy men go laughing, | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| Let light men ride away, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Bruised corn is not for my mill, | 8 | ·˘······ |
| What’s paid I will not pay,-- | 6 | ······ |
| And so I thought because of this | 8 | ········ |
| Gossip that poisoned clasp and kiss. | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| Four hundred men went riding, | 8 | ·/˘˘··/˘ |
| And he the best of all, | 6 | ······ |
| A jolly man for labour, | 7 | ·/˘··/· |
| A sinewy man and tall; | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| I watched him go beyond the hill, | 8 | ········ |
| And shaped my anger with my will. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| At night my love came riding | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Across the dusky moor, | 6 | ˘/·/˘· |
| And other two rode with him | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Who knocked my bolted door, | 7 | ··˘·/˘· |
| And called me out and bade me see | 8 | ········ |
| How quiet a man a man could be. | 8 | ·/······ |
| And now the tales that stung me | 7 | ······· |
| And gave my pride its rule, | 6 | ······ |
| Are worth a beggar’s broken shoe | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Or the sermon of a fool, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| And all I know and all I can | 8 | ········ |
| Is, false or true, he was my man. | 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.