The Outlet
Grief struck me. I so shook in heart and witI thought I must speak of it or die of it.
A certain friend I had with strength to lend,When mine was spent I went to find my friend,
Who, rising up with eyes wild for relief,Hung on my neck and spoke to me of grief.
I raked the ashes of my burned-out strengthAnd found one coal to warm her with at length.
I sat with her till I was icy cold.At last I went away, my grief untold.
Words in this poem
- shook v. t.
- To pack, as staves, in a shook.
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- spoke n.
- The radius or ray of a wheel; one of the small bars which are inserted in the hub, or nave, and which serve to support the rim or felly. [OE. spoke, spake, AS, spaca; akin to D. speek, LG. speke, OHG. speihha, G. speiche. sq. root170. Cf. Spike a nail.]
- untold a.
- Not told; not related; not revealed; as, untold secrets.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Outlet is in the public domain. This text is taken from Sonnets and Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #56244; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Eleanor Farjeon, The Outlet, in Sonnets and Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #56244, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/farjeon-sonnets-poems/the-outlet.html, id L21989.
Form and metre
The Outlet is 10 lines in 5 stanzas of 2 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
See other poems in heroic couplets, 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 AA witA · itA
- 2 AA lendA · friendA
- 3 AA reliefA · griefA
- 4 AA strengthA · lengthA
- 5 AA coldA · untoldA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Grief struck me. I so shook in heart and wit | 10 | ·········· |
| I thought I must speak of it or die of it. | 11 | ··········· |
| A certain friend I had with strength to lend, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| When mine was spent I went to find my friend, | 10 | ·········· |
| Who, rising up with eyes wild for relief, | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| Hung on my neck and spoke to me of grief. | 10 | ·········· |
| I raked the ashes of my burned-out strength | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And found one coal to warm her with at length. | 10 | ·········· |
| I sat with her till I was icy cold. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| At last I went away, my grief untold. | 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.