Some starlit garden grey with dew
SOME starlit garden grey with dew,Some chamber flushed with wine and fire,What matters where, so I and youAre worthy our desire?
Behind, a past that scolds and jeersFor ungirt loins and lamps unlit;In front, the unmanageable years,The trap upon the Pit;
Think on the shame of dreams for deeds,The scandal of unnatural strife,The slur upon immortal needs,The treason done to life:
Arise! no more a living lie,And with me quicken and controlSome memory that shall magnifyThe universal Soul.
Words in this poem
- starlit a.
- Lighted by the stars; starlight.
- scandal n.
- Offense caused or experienced; reproach or reprobation called forth by what is regarded as wrong, criminal, heinous, or flagrant: opprobrium or disgrace. [F. scandale, fr. L. scandalum, Gr. scandle, OF. escandle. See Slander.]
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
- slur v. t.
- To soil; to sully; to contaminate; to disgrace. Cudworth. [Cf. OE. sloor mud, clay, Icel. sl, slo, to trail or drag one's self along, D. sleuren, sloren, to train, to drag, to do negligently and slovenly, D. sloor, sloe]
- needs adv.
- Of necessity; necessarily; indispensably; -- often with must, and equivalent to of need. [Orig. gen. of need, used as an adverb. Cf. - wards.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Some starlit garden grey with dew is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #1568; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: W. E. Henley, Some starlit garden grey with dew, in Poems (1898), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1568, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/henley-poems/some-starlit-garden-grey-with-dew.html, id L12448.
Form and metre
Some starlit garden grey with dew is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.7 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 25% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 ABAB dewA · fireB · youA · desireB
- 2 ABAB jeersA · unlitB · yearsA · pitB
- 3 ABAB deedsA · strifeB · needsA · lifeB
- 4 ABAB lieA · controlB · magnifyA · soulB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| SOME starlit garden grey with dew, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Some chamber flushed with wine and fire, | 9 | ·/˘····/˘ |
| What matters where, so I and you | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Are worthy our desire? | 8 | ·/˘/˘˘/˘ |
| Behind, a past that scolds and jeers | 8 | ········ |
| For ungirt loins and lamps unlit; | 8 | ········ |
| In front, the unmanageable years, | 8 | ···˘/˘˘· |
| The trap upon the Pit; | 6 | ······ |
| Think on the shame of dreams for deeds, | 8 | ········ |
| The scandal of unnatural strife, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| The slur upon immortal needs, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| The treason done to life: | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Arise! no more a living lie, | 8 | ˘/···/˘· |
| And with me quicken and control | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Some memory that shall magnify | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The universal Soul. | 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.