The Shadow of Raggedstone
O RAGGEDSTONE, you darksome hill,Your shadow fell for sureUpon my own dear love and I,Across the purple moor.
For we were such a happy pair,The day we climbed your crest;And now my love she lays her headUpon another’s breast.
She sits beside another man,And walks abroad with he,And never sheds a single tear,Or thinks a thought o’ me!
My mind it seems a-fire like,My heart’s as cold as lead,My prayers they dry upon my lipsAnd somehow won’t get said.
I wish that I could lay me down,Upon the dreary plainThat stretches out to Raggedstone,And never rise again!
Words in this poem
- darksome a.
- Dark; gloomy; obscure; shaded; cheerless.
- somehow adv.
- In one way or another; in some way not yet known or designated; by some means; as, the thing must be done somehow; he lives somehow.
- dreary a.
- Sorrowful; distressful. [OE. dreori, dreri, AS. dreórig, sad; akin to G. traurig, and prob. to AS. dreósan to fall, Goth. driusan. Cf. Dross, Drear, Drizzle, Drowse.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Shadow of Raggedstone 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, The Shadow of Raggedstone, in Songs of Three Counties, and Other Poems (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #50591, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hall-three-counties/the-shadow-of-raggedstone.html, id L22658.
Form and metre
The Shadow of Raggedstone is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 97%).
See other poems in common measure.
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 hill · sureA · i · moorA
- 2 -A-A pair · crestA · head · breastA
- 3 -A-A man · heA · tear · meA
- 4 -A-A like · leadA · lips · saidA
- 5 -A-A down · plainA · raggedstone · againA
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| O RAGGEDSTONE, you darksome hill, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Your shadow fell for sure | 6 | ·/···· |
| Upon my own dear love and I, | 8 | ········ |
| Across the purple moor. | 6 | ˘/·/˘· |
| For we were such a happy pair, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The day we climbed your crest; | 6 | ······ |
| And now my love she lays her head | 8 | ········ |
| Upon another’s breast. | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| She sits beside another man, | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘· |
| And walks abroad with he, | 6 | ··˘/·· |
| And never sheds a single tear, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Or thinks a thought o’ me! | 6 | ······ |
| My mind it seems a-fire like, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| My heart’s as cold as lead, | 6 | ······ |
| My prayers they dry upon my lips | 8 | ········ |
| And somehow won’t get said. | 6 | ·/···· |
| I wish that I could lay me down, | 8 | ········ |
| Upon the dreary plain | 6 | ···/˘· |
| That stretches out to Raggedstone, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And never rise again! | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
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.