Our Dead
THE day our dead are laid to restWe heap the earth upon their breast;Upon the earth we set a stone,And then we leave them all alone.
Some folks they weep, and some they pray,But from the grave they’ll turn away.There’s wood to chop, and fires to make,And food to cook, and bread to bake.
Another takes the empty seat,For men who live must drink and eat;And work is waiting to be done,The work of two, that’s now for one.
We sometimes speak of folks that’s dead,Of what they did, and what they said;We sometimes think of them at night,But sometimes we forget them quite.
Words in this poem
- folks n.
- In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
- bake v. t.
- To prepare, as food, by cooking in a dry heat, either in an oven or under coals, or on heated stone or metal; as, to bake bread, meat, apples.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Our Dead is in the public domain. This text is taken from Songs of Three Counties, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #50591; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Radclyffe Hall, Our Dead, in Songs of Three Counties, and Other Poems (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #50591, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hall-three-counties/our-dead.html, id L22676.
Form and metre
Our Dead is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
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 AABB restA · breastA · stoneB · aloneB
- 2 AABB prayA · awayA · makeB · bakeB
- 3 AABB seatA · eatA · doneB · oneB
- 4 AABB deadA · saidA · nightB · quiteB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| THE day our dead are laid to rest | 8 | ··/····· |
| We heap the earth upon their breast; | 8 | ········ |
| Upon the earth we set a stone, | 8 | ········ |
| And then we leave them all alone. | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Some folks they weep, and some they pray, | 8 | ········ |
| But from the grave they’ll turn away. | 8 | ······˘/ |
| There’s wood to chop, and fires to make, | 8 | ·····/·· |
| And food to cook, and bread to bake. | 8 | ········ |
| Another takes the empty seat, | 8 | ˘/˘··/˘· |
| For men who live must drink and eat; | 8 | ········ |
| And work is waiting to be done, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The work of two, that’s now for one. | 8 | ········ |
| We sometimes speak of folks that’s dead, | 8 | ·˘/····· |
| Of what they did, and what they said; | 8 | ········ |
| We sometimes think of them at night, | 8 | ·˘/····· |
| But sometimes we forget them quite. | 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.