Written at Ludlow Castle (In the Hall Where Comus Was First Performed)
Where wall and sill and broken window-frameAre bright with flowers unroofed against the skies,And nothing but the nesting jackdaws’ criesBreaks the hushed even, once imperial cameThe muse that moved transfiguring the nameOf Puritan, and beautiful and wiseThe verses fell, forespeaking Paradise,And poetry set all this hall aflame.
Now silence has come down upon the placeWhere life and song so wonderfully went,And the mole’s afoot now where that passion rang,Yet Comus now first moves his laurelled pace,For song and life for ever are unspent,And they are more than ghosts who lived and sang.
Words in this poem
- unroofed a.
- Etym: [Properly p. p. of unroof.]
- forespeaking n.
- A prediction; also, a preface. Camden. Huloet.
- aflame adv.
- Inflames; glowing with light or passion; ablaze. G. Eliot. [Pref. a- + flame.]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Written at Ludlow Castle (In the Hall Where Comus Was First Performed) 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, Written at Ludlow Castle (In the Hall Where Comus Was First Performed), in Poems, 1908-1919 (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51575, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drinkwater-poems/written-at-ludlow-castle-in-the-hall-where-comus-was-first-p.html, id L23093.
Form and metre
Written at Ludlow Castle (In the Hall Where Comus Was First Performed) 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 ABBAAB-A frameA · skiesB · criesB · cameA · nameA · wiseB · paradise · aflameA
- 2 ABCABC placeA · wentB · rangC · paceA · unspentB · sangC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Where wall and sill and broken window-frame | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Are bright with flowers unroofed against the skies, | 10 | ···/˘/···· |
| And nothing but the nesting jackdaws’ cries | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Breaks the hushed even, once imperial came | 10 | ···/·˘/˘˘· |
| The muse that moved transfiguring the name | 10 | ·········· |
| Of Puritan, and beautiful and wise | 10 | ·/˘˘·/˘˘·· |
| The verses fell, forespeaking Paradise, | 9 | ·/˘·/˘/˘· |
| And poetry set all this hall aflame. | 10 | ·/˘˘····˘/ |
| Now silence has come down upon the place | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Where life and song so wonderfully went, | 10 | ·····/˘˘˘· |
| And the mole’s afoot now where that passion rang, | 11 | ···˘/···/˘· |
| Yet Comus now first moves his laurelled pace, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| For song and life for ever are unspent, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| And they are more than ghosts who lived and sang. | 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.