Staff-Nurse: New Style
BLUE-EYED and bright of face but waning fastInto the sere of virginal decay,I view her as she enters, day by day,As a sweet sunset almost overpast.Kindly and calm, patrician to the last,Superbly falls her gown of sober gray,And on her chignon’s elegant arrayThe plainest cap is somehow touched with caste.She talks BEETHOVEN; frowns disapprobationAt BALZAC’S name, sighs it at ‘poor GEORGE SAND’S’;Knows that she has exceeding pretty hands;Speaks Latin with a right accentuation;And gives at need (as one who understands)Draught, counsel, diagnosis, exhortation.
Words in this poem
- waning n.
- The act or process of waning, or decreasing.
- sere n.
- Claw; talon. Chapman. [F. serre.]
- virginal a.
- Of or pertaining to a virgin; becoming a virgin; maidenly. [L. virginalis: cf. F. virginal.]
- patrician a.
- Of or pertaining to the Roman patres (fathers) or senators, or patricians. [L. patricius, fr. patres fathers or senators, pl. of pater: cf. F. patricien. See Paternal.]
- chignon n.
- A knot, boss, or mass of hair, natural or artificial, worn by a woman at the back of the head. [F., prop. equiv. to chaînon link, fr. chaîne chain, fr. L. catena Cf. Chain.]
- 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.
- accentuation n.
- Act of accentuating; applications of accent. Specifically (Eccles. Mus.), [LL. accentuatio: cf. F. accentuation.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Staff-Nurse: New Style 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, Staff-Nurse: New Style, in Poems (1898), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1568, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/henley-poems/staff-nurse-new-style.html, id L12331.
Form and metre
Staff-Nurse: New Style is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 57% of the lines: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%). 88% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.6 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 21% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 ABBAABBACDDCDC fastA · decayB · dayB · overpastA · lastA · grayB · arrayB · casteA · disapprobationC · sand'sD · handsD · accentuationC · understandsD · exhortationC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| BLUE-EYED and bright of face but waning fast | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Into the sere of virginal decay, | 10 | ·····/˘˘˘/ |
| I view her as she enters, day by day, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| As a sweet sunset almost overpast. | 10 | ···/·/···· |
| Kindly and calm, patrician to the last, | 10 | /˘··˘/˘··· |
| Superbly falls her gown of sober gray, | 10 | /˘˘····/˘· |
| And on her chignon’s elegant array | 10 | ·····/˘˘˘/ |
| The plainest cap is somehow touched with caste. | 10 | ·/˘··/···· |
| She talks BEETHOVEN; frowns disapprobation | 8 | ··/˘˘··· |
| At BALZAC’S name, sighs it at ‘poor GEORGE SAND’S’; | 10 | ·········· |
| Knows that she has exceeding pretty hands; | 10 | ····˘/˘/˘· |
| Speaks Latin with a right accentuation; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And gives at need (as one who understands) | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Draught, counsel, diagnosis, exhortation. | 11 | ·/˘·˘/˘··/˘ |
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.