Aunt Helen
Miss Helen Slingsby was my maiden aunt,And lived in a small house near a fashionable squareCared for by servants to the number of four.Now when she died there was silence in heavenAnd silence at her end of the street.The shutters were drawn and the undertaker wiped his feet--He was aware that this sort of thing had occurred before.The dogs were handsomely provided for,But shortly afterwards the parrot died too.The Dresden clock continued ticking on the mantelpiece,And the footman sat upon the dining-tableHolding the second housemaid on his knees--Who had always been so careful while her mistress lived.
Words in this poem
- undertaker n.
- One who undertakes; one who engages in any project or business.
- shortly adv.
- In a short or brief time or manner; soon; quickly. [AS. sceortlice.]
- ticking n.
- A strong, closely woven linen or cotton fabric, of which ticks for beds are made. It is usually twilled, and woven in stripes of different colors, as white and blue; -- called also ticken. [From Tick a bed cover. Cf. Ticken.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Aunt Helen is in the public domain. This text is taken from Prufrock and Other Observations, Project Gutenberg ebook #1459; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: T. S. Eliot, Aunt Helen, in Prufrock and Other Observations (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1459, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/eliot-prufrock/aunt-helen.html, id L04659.
Form and metre
Aunt Helen is 13 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%). 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 11.5 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 23% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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-BBAA----- aunt · square · fourA · heaven · streetB · feetB · beforeA · forA · too · mantelpiece · table · knees · lived
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Miss Helen Slingsby was my maiden aunt, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| And lived in a small house near a fashionable square | 11 | ········/˘· |
| Cared for by servants to the number of four. | 11 | ···/˘··/˘·· |
| Now when she died there was silence in heaven | 11 | ······/˘·/˘ |
| And silence at her end of the street. | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| The shutters were drawn and the undertaker wiped his feet-- | 14 | ·/˘····/˘·˘··· |
| He was aware that this sort of thing had occurred before. | 14 | ··˘/······˘/·· |
| The dogs were handsomely provided for, | 10 | ···/˘˘˘/˘· |
| But shortly afterwards the parrot died too. | 10 | ·/˘/˘·/˘·· |
| The Dresden clock continued ticking on the mantelpiece, | 14 | ·/˘·˘/˘/˘··/˘˘ |
| And the footman sat upon the dining-table | 12 | ··/˘····/˘/˘ |
| Holding the second housemaid on his knees-- | 10 | /˘·/˘/˘··· |
| Who had always been so careful while her mistress lived. | 13 | ··/···/˘··/˘· |
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.