Stageland

Harry Graham (1874–1936) · 1905

iambic tetrameter · ABABCC · 6 lines · from Verse and Worse

The customs of this land have allBeen published in a bulky tome.The author is a man they callJerome K. Jerome K. Jerome.So, lest on his preserves I poach,This subject I refuse to broach.

Words in this poem

poach v. t.
To stab; to pierce; to spear, \as fish. Carew. [Cf. OF. pocher to thrust or dig out with the fingers, to bruise (the eyes), F. pouce thumb, L. pollex, and also E. poach to cook eggs, to plunder, and poke to t]
broach v. t.
To spit; to pierce as with a spit. [F. brocher, fr. broche. See Broach, n.]

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

Stageland is in the public domain. This text is taken from Verse and Worse, Project Gutenberg ebook #36702; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.

Cite as: Harry Graham, Stageland, in Verse and Worse (1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #36702, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/graham-verse-and-worse/stageland.html, id L23320.

Form and metre

Stageland is 6 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCC. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).

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. 1 ABABCC allA · tomeB · callA · jeromeB · poachC · broachC
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.

LineSyl.Stress
The customs of this land have all8·/˘·····
Been published in a bulky tome.8·/˘··/˘·
The author is a man they call8·/˘·····
Jerome K. Jerome K. Jerome.8˘/·˘/·˘/
So, lest on his preserves I poach,8····˘/··
This subject I refuse to broach.8·/˘·˘/··

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.

More by Harry Graham