Rupert Brooke (Died April 23, 1915)
To-day I have talked with old Euripides;Shakespeare this morning sang for my contentOf chimney-sweepers; through the Carian treesComes beating still the nightingales’ lament;The Tabard ales to-day are freshly brewed;Wordsworth is with me, mounting Loughrigg Fell;All timeless deaths in Lycid are renewed,And basils blossom yet for Isabel.
Quick thoughts are these; they do not pass; they gaveOnly to death such little, casual thingsAs are the noteless levies of the grave,--Sad flesh, weak verse, and idle marketings.So my mortality for yours complains,While our immortal fellowship remains.
Words in this poem
- timeless a.
- Done at an improper time; unseasonable; untimely.
- noteless a.
- Not attracting notice; not conspicuous.
- mortality n.
- The condition or quality of being mortal; subjection to death or to the necessity of dying. [L. mortalitas: cf. F. mortalité.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Rupert Brooke (Died April 23, 1915) 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, Rupert Brooke (Died April 23, 1915), in Poems, 1908-1919 (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51575, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drinkwater-poems/rupert-brooke-died-april-23-1915.html, id L23084.
Form and metre
Rupert Brooke (Died April 23, 1915) is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 -A-ABCBC euripides · contentA · trees · lamentA · brewedB · fellC · renewedB · isabelC
- 2 ABABCC gaveA · thingsB · graveA · marketingsB · complainsC · remainsC
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| To-day I have talked with old Euripides; | 10 | ·········· |
| Shakespeare this morning sang for my content | 10 | /··/˘···˘/ |
| Of chimney-sweepers; through the Carian trees | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Comes beating still the nightingales’ lament; | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| The Tabard ales to-day are freshly brewed; | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Wordsworth is with me, mounting Loughrigg Fell; | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| All timeless deaths in Lycid are renewed, | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| And basils blossom yet for Isabel. | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Quick thoughts are these; they do not pass; they gave | 10 | ·········· |
| Only to death such little, casual things | 10 | /˘···/˘/˘· |
| As are the noteless levies of the grave,-- | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Sad flesh, weak verse, and idle marketings. | 10 | ·····/˘/˘˘ |
| So my mortality for yours complains, | 10 | ··˘/˘˘··˘/ |
| While our immortal fellowship remains. | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘·˘/ |
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.