My Lady of Castle Grand
Gray is the palace where she dwells,Grimly the poplars standThere by the window where she sits,My Lady of Castle Grand.
There does she bide the livelong day,Grim as the poplars are,Ever her gaze goes reaching out,Steady, but vague and far.
Bright burn the fires in the castle hall,Brightly the fire-dogs stand;But cold is the body and cold the heartOf my Lady of Castle Grand.
Blue are the veins in her lily-white hands,Blue are the veins in her brow;Thin is the line of her blue drawn lips,Who would be haughty now?
Pale is the face at the window-pane,Pale as the pearl on her breast,"Roderick, love, wilt come again?Fares he to east or west?"
The shepherd pipes to the shepherdess,The bird to his mate in the tree,And ever she sighs as she hears their song,"Nobody sings for me."
The scullery maids have swains enowWho lead them the way of love,But lonely and loveless their mistress sitsAt her window up above.
Loveless and lonely she waits and waits,The saddest in all the land;Ah, cruel and lasting is love-blind pride,My Lady of Castle Grand.
Words in this poem
- grimly a.
- Grim; hideous; stern.
- bide v. i.
- To dwell; to inhabit; to abide; to stay. [OE. biden, AS. bidan; akin to OHG. bitan, Goth. beidan, Icel. bi; perh. orig., to wait with trust, and akin to bid. See Bid, v. t., and cf. Abide.]
- livelong a.
- Whole; entire; long in passing; -- used of time, as day or night, in adverbial phrases, and usually with a sense of tediousness. [For lifelong. Cf. Lifelong.]
- haughty a.
- High; lofty; bold. [OE. hautein, F. hautain, fr. haut high, OF. also halt, fr. L. altus. See Altitude.]
- pane n.
- The narrow edge of a hammer head. See Peen. [F. panne.]
- shepherdess n.
- A woman who tends sheep; hence, a rural lass.
- nobody n.
- No person; no one; not anybody. [No, a. + body.]
- scullery n.
- A place where dishes, kettles, and culinary utensils, are cleaned and kept; also, a room attached to the kitchen, where the coarse work is done; a back kitchen. [Probably originally, a place for washing dishes, and for swillery, fr. OE. swilen to wash, AS. swilian (see Swill to wash, to drink), but influenced either by I]
- enow
- A form of Enough.
- loveless a.
- Void of love; void of tenderness or kindness. Milton. Shelton.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
My Lady of Castle Grand is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar, Project Gutenberg ebook #18338; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Paul Laurence Dunbar, My Lady of Castle Grand, in The Complete Poems (1893–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18338, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dunbar-poems/my-lady-of-castle-grand.html, id L00727.
Form and metre
My Lady of Castle Grand is 32 lines in 8 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%). 84% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.8 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 -A-A dwells · standA · sits · grandA
- 2 -A-A day · areA · out · farA
- 3 -A-A hall · standA · heart · grandA
- 4 -A-A hands · browA · lips · nowA
- 5 ABAB paneA · breastB · againA · westB
- 6 -A-A shepherdess · treeA · song · meA
- 7 -A-A enow · loveA · sits · aboveA
- 8 -A-A waits · landA · pride · grandA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Gray is the palace where she dwells, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Grimly the poplars stand | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| There by the window where she sits, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| My Lady of Castle Grand. | 7 | ·/˘·/˘· |
| There does she bide the livelong day, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Grim as the poplars are, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Ever her gaze goes reaching out, | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| Steady, but vague and far. | 6 | /˘···· |
| Bright burn the fires in the castle hall, | 9 | ···/··/˘· |
| Brightly the fire-dogs stand; | 7 | /˘·/˘·· |
| But cold is the body and cold the heart | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| Of my Lady of Castle Grand. | 8 | ··/˘·/˘· |
| Blue are the veins in her lily-white hands, | 10 | ······/˘·· |
| Blue are the veins in her brow; | 7 | ······· |
| Thin is the line of her blue drawn lips, | 9 | ········· |
| Who would be haughty now? | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Pale is the face at the window-pane, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Pale as the pearl on her breast, | 7 | ······· |
| "Roderick, love, wilt come again? | 7 | /˘···˘/ |
| Fares he to east or west?" | 6 | ······ |
| The shepherd pipes to the shepherdess, | 9 | ·/˘···/˘˘ |
| The bird to his mate in the tree, | 8 | ········ |
| And ever she sighs as she hears their song, | 9 | ·/······· |
| "Nobody sings for me." | 6 | /····· |
| The scullery maids have swains enow | 9 | ·/˘˘···˘/ |
| Who lead them the way of love, | 7 | ······· |
| But lonely and loveless their mistress sits | 10 | ·/˘·/˘·/˘· |
| At her window up above. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Loveless and lonely she waits and waits, | 9 | /˘·/˘···· |
| The saddest in all the land; | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Ah, cruel and lasting is love-blind pride, | 9 | ·/·/˘···· |
| My Lady of Castle Grand. | 7 | ·/˘·/˘· |
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.